More purchases at Duif.In the first picture a baby hat form Nuristan eastern Afghanistan) adornedd with seed beads and Czech beads. In the second picture a girl headdress from Nuristann too, adorned with cowries, seed beads and plastic buttons.

Another purchase at Duif: a beaded hat from Afghanistan, I think from Kuchi people (am I right?). It needs some restoration but I think it is an eyecatching object for an exhibit on beads.I'm wearing it in the picture posted by Floor withn the title "Please don't post it on BCN..."; I never wear beads o beaded objets:in that occasion I was showing my purchases and put the hat on my had just because there was no place to put it; Peter was very quick in taking a picture, and in the very moment I groaned "please don't post it on BCN" I was sure that the picture would have appeared on the forum. What happened!
Giorgio

Hi Martine.
seven years ago I founded in Milan a small bead society, the Compagnia delle Perle, with a handful of collectors and bead interested people. We experienced that our more successful activity was organizing exhibits. Currently we organize at the beginning of June an exhibit we call "a week-end show", which includes a thematic exhibit and a space for members to sell or show their crafts or their collections. An enlarged version of this exhibit is organized if there is somebody (museums, associations etc.) interested to it. The small network of collectors often allow us to cover different aspects of each subject with old and new beads, beadwork, memorabilia. The most successful subject has proven to be that of Venetian beads; I enjoyed particularly the one we organized in 2009 in Arcore, a small town north of Milan that became famous in Italy for hosting the main residence of Mr.Berlusconi, which Italian newspapers often call "the man from Arcore".
The exhibit was host in a XVIII century, just restored villa: you can see in the picture a panoramic view of part of the exhibit.

In 2010 the Buoncosiglio Castle, a huge medieval castle in Trento (N.Italy), organized a great exhibt,ion entitled "One Thousand Years of Venetian Glass" and asked us to organized two halls on Venetian trade beads. We put on show both materials from our member collections and from two museums.
The National Ethnographic and Anthropological Museum Pigorini of Rome loaned us a number of splendid objects with Venetian beads collected at the end of XIX cenury in East Africa. In the first picture: the necklace of a Somali Princess made of silver, Baltic amber and Venetian trade beads. The second picture is of a belt made of leather and trade beads.

The subject of our annual exhibit of this year (May 30-June2) was Czech beads. The exhibit was organized in a brief introduction on various kinds of Czech beads with canes, moulds, raw beads etc., I could borrow during a short travel in Jabonec during my easter holydays. Followed some cages devoted to the collection of Nicoletta Chiozzi, who inherited a little stock of Czech beads and necklaces from her grand-aunt Imelde, who owned a boutique in Milan between 1920 and 1930. Another small part of the exhibit was devoted to scene jewellery for Scala Theatre made by Corbetta, a firm established in Milan in 1865 which made jewellery for the Scala and other famous Italian and foreign theatres, made with metal and Czech beads. Followed a section devoted to Unger, a firm established in 1875 in Milan and still active. The exhibit close with a small section with strings of Czech trade beads from the collection of Augusto Panini.
An adapted version of this exhibit will be held next spring in Casalmaggiore, ten kms from Parma, which probably most people know as the homeland of Parmesan cheese and Parma ham.
The first picture is of a cage with pieces from the 30s and original drawings. In the second picture a bracelet from early 70s, the first jewel made by current owner of Unger, Maria Pia Rossi

In the first picture is the entrance of the exhibit on Czech beads, hosted in a wing of a small XIX century villa in Concorezzo, a town about 15 kms northeast of Milan.
In the second picture a panoramic view of the exhibit, which hosted also a series of nice paintings of necklace-wearing women made by a local artist, Elisabetta Visentin.

Hi Giorgio -
It wold be very nice if you would let us know the dates of future events, just in case anyone can make it. I was planning to be in Italy next May - June but now I'm not sure. In case I can make it, it would be great to see you and other bead people if possible!

Grazie,
Rosanna

Hi Rosanna, I would be very happy to meet you in Milan. I'll keep informed forum members about events here. Currently we're working also to next year annual show (probably at the beginning of june) which will be dedicated to the origin of body ornament in prehistory and to jewellery with natural materials until today. I don't exactly know yet how we will develop the exhibit. But I'm sure it will begin with a new copy of this 3D reconstruction of a Neanderthalian from Fumane Cave (Verona, N.Italy) made by Fabio Fogliazza, a colleague of mine and an artist; this reconstruction is currently on exhibit at the new Museum of Human Evolution in Burgos, Spain.
Arrivederci a Milano
Giorgio

Thank you for your kind invitation! Grazie! I am working on my plan to visit Italy and hope to be there "soon".

The forum readers may or may not know that modern Homo Sapiens, outside of Africa, have 1-4% of their genome from Homo Neanderthalensis, with the average European at 2.7%.

From the 23andme (genetic testing) site:

Neanderthals were a group of humans who lived in Europe and Western Asia. They are the closest evolutionary relatives of modern humans, but they went extinct about 30,000 years ago. The first Neanderthals arrived in Europe as early as 600,000 to 350,000 years ago. Neanderthals Ñ Homo neanderthalensis Ñ and modern humans Ñ Homo sapiens Ñ lived along side each other for thousands of years. Genetic evidence suggest that they interbred and although Neanderthals disappeared about 30,000 years ago, traces of their DNA Ñ between 1 percent and 4 percent Ñ are found in all modern humans outside of Africa.

This is a beautiful artistic rendering and I'm sure the bead exhibit will be fascinating!

I am impressed. These exhibitions seem very professional, and to have musea willing to work along is fantastic. Please don't hesitate to post as many pictures as you can of the exhibitions, of your colllections. And keep us informed. Who knows that one of your exhibions might end up being a meeting place for BCN members from all over the world!
Thank you!

Your purchases are absolutely wonderful! And I agree with Martine, your groups exhibitions look very intriguing and incredibly done. I also believe that many others would like to attend and see in person (I know that I would, if that was ever possible to arrange), so please do continue to keep us in the loop with future events. Thank you for sharing here! Warmly, Lynne

Well, Lynne, thank you for you appreciation.Indeed, I must say that the setting of our small exhibits is often quite basic: we organize exhibits for free (insurance apart)and if the host hasn't cages nor panels, we are organized as in the first picture: enthomological boxes from an old butterfly collection for display and silk tovels, gift of a member, to cover the tables. In the second picture: the small hall for temporary exhibit at the Museum of Bijou of Casalmaggiore in occasion of our exhibit on trade beads in 2013. Maybe Jan Skipper will recongnize on the right the boxes with trade beads from USA I got from him. Next spring the museum of Casalmaggiore will host our exhibit on Czech beads.

Giorgio