Yes, I agree with Thomas. The jug-shaped beads on this strand aren't even serious reproductions, just modern variants on an ancient theme that are quite pretty in themselves and of no real value. The original beads were manufactured in West Asia in the mid-4th to early-5th century at the time of the rise of Byzantium. According to Marianne Stern and others, they probably functioned as religious amulets for Christian pilgrims (like many of the stamped glass pendants we talked about here a year or so ago). Perhaps they were intended to evoke holy water containers, or perhaps they were actually used to hold a few blessed drops themselves. The most common design consists of a glass tube open at one end, closed at the other, with a network of lampworked glass trailed around the middle to suggest a bulbous body (see the attached). They were intended to be hung as pendants, not strung as beads, so they bear little real resemblance to these contemporary versions.

Most - probably all - of the other beads on the strand are also recent, and they definitely shouldn't be sold or bought as ancient.

Will