As I remarked here recently, I have looked for, found, and documented more specimens of early Venetian millefiori beads than anyone else in the world—having pursued this since 1980.

I believe I saw the first such bead to be recovered in Peru by a professional archaeologist, who had no idea what it was—though I recognized it from the description over the phone, and high-tailed to Los Angeles to see it (in a slide). Unfortunately, that bead was misplaced and was never published. It was nearly ten years later that the beads—such as from the Steinberg collection—circulated and were privately sold. I have handled and photographed all of these beads, as best I know.

I have documented early Venetian millefiori beads from West Africa, Peru, England, Holland, and Israel. I own the Israeli specimen—and it's different from any others, but still well within keeping for congruency with early rosetta beads.

I WILL answer your questions, and thereby make a visual presentation here in the near future. (Nevertheless, please understand I HAVE shown these beads in the past here, and published them elsewhere!) In the meantime, generalizations that you have read are not necessarily wrong, but do not tell much of the story, vis-a-vis aspects such as "layer number in canes used in early Venetian millefiori." I have the bigger picture. The phrasing that suggests "pieces and fragments of 7 layer chevrons" were used in the decoration of these beads is a convenience to make a point. But it is technically inaccurate. I aim to be technologically precise and accurate. While there are some beads that have chevron beads, or pieces of them, as decorations, these particular beads typically do not.

Jamey