Most of these wonderful images are of Venetian glass beads made in the late 19th - early 20th century for the West African trade. Most of the beads in these images are no longer available.

Notice the unusual green chevron on the right - not the usual 6-layer sequence. The white collared fancy is lovely. The condition of most beads in this group is simply astounding.

I would want to put them under a UV light to see if they fluoresce.

Unopened bundle of so-called "Russian Blues" straight from Nigeria. Long strands of uniform size and color, very nice condition.

Bright and shining!

creamy ends and crunchy center, yummy!

The stripes are very unusual to me.

For the first time in his career in beads, Adbul was able to locate a full strand of early 20th century 6-layer green chevron beads, AND a full strand of 5-layer black chevrons. Sorry there is not anything for scale in the image - most beads are slightly over one inch in length. The strands are about 34" and 36" in length. There are 2 chips on the entire strand of greens. All of these were a pleasure to see today! And it is always nice to see Abdul as well! Thanks Abdul! Hoping the images are fun.

Seems like more and more of these 6 layer green chevrons are coming into the US. Bully had a whole strand in Tucson and I have seen them other places too.

Have you bought it all or is thee a chance some coral (cylinders)might find its way into the trades pages?

to you and everyone! He is on the road travelling north with his son and nephew, little Ebrahim and little Abdul. Very handsome and nice little guys, 11 and 10 years old. Big Ebrahim is on the road for Expo in Charleston, holding down the Touray display on his own.

if they're not available anymore where might one see them

many went to a private client. Believe it or not, the only item I got this time was a full strand of clear 18th c. Dutch pentagonals, each about the diameter of a penny. I like them a lot and I've already knotted them upon purple suede "string"!