The beads I bought from Hands of the Hills display the spiral starbursts, which are applied liberally, whereas the new beads have maybe 2-4 murrine around the circumference.

And then it ran out, now they're pulling new starburst cane that is not spiralled.

http://beadcollector.net/cgi-bin/anyboard.cgi?fvp=/openforum/&cmd=iYz&aK=43393&iZz=43393&gV=0&kQz=&aO=1&iWz=0

The newer beads have canes that have fewer spirals around the center. Nevertheless, these canes do spiral (!) and are different from the Venetian canes that inspired them, that have complete concentric stripe layers.

I showed the only "new" Chinese millefiori beads I am aware of, about 10 years ago, that I believe were not made by exploiting old stocks of canes.

JDA.

Pic shows two examples of the beads showing a single turn vs a bead with multiple turns.

I will try to dig-out the photos I took ten years ago, where what I am confident is a new cane was used on then-new beads. The canes are distinctive—and not just because there are "fewer spirals."

I continue to believe that the beads you are discussing were made from old stocks of canes. Some produced, perhaps, in the 1980s. Or, possibly there were rediscovered old stocks of beads, sold in the 1980s. (I would have no way to determine which scenario would be more accurate.)

I will also try to dig-out my photo of old black beads, with "new" ('80s) black beads—that demonstrates they are identical—except that the old beads have surface wear from use. JDA.

Doubtful they would know anything about the beads.

[Here I interrupt to opine that they might also have been made in Boshan during the post-Liberation revival of the glass factories, and were simply purchased by Hong Kong buyers and sold there.]

These beads were strung on elastic to be used as infant-girl bracelets, a specialty item prepared for sale and, thus, like the buttons in the grasslands, may have a wider distribution than simple strings of beads. At no time did we observe any specific type of decorated beads outside of a specific city area except for one case. In Beijing, a single small string of beads was purchased in an antique shop that included six modern Boshan-like decorated beads strung with several plain beads. The price was vastly inflated at a markup from Boshan of over 200%.

Hong Kong enters the picture because, in the early 1980s, considerable quantities of Boshan millefiori beads were sold from that location, that had been warehoused (in HK) for some years. Presumably from as early as the 1920s or '30s. For a few years these were quite a fad—and I knew people who went to Hong Kong specifically to find and buy those beads.

This was something different from what Sprague discussed (which was circumstantial). Soon after his field work at Boshan, Boshan millefiori beads were available for sale—because I bought them from Paddy Kan in 1987.

JDA.

In China, these beads have also become three times more expensive than we may rationalize. They are now paying more than we are paying for the finest pieces.

http://ornamentmagazine.epubxp.com/i/139740-vol36-4-2013/45

The PDF is downloadable for reading offline.

While the glass and technique is Chinese, the rendering is nearly Japanese in style…As if there may have been a collaboration.

https://www.robinatkins.com/adventures.html

http://ornamentmagazine.epubxp.com/i/139740-vol36-4-2013/45

Pouring flat strips of glass to use in lampworking is a Japanese technique. The Satake glass used by contemporary Japanese lampworkers is produced in flat strips.

Jamey's 2004 presentation speculated how the starburst canes were constructed by laying the thin decorative strips at right angles to a larger flat strip, rolling the whole thing up like a jelly roll, and then drawing out the resulting stubby cylinder of glass into a long rod, subsequently cut into murrine.

The Japanese how-to book Tonbo-dama by Kogure Norikazu has a chapter on making cherry blossom murrine that very closely resemble the little blossoms on old beads that I recollect are in Billy's collection, as well as the murrine in the old pre-WWII Boshan beads as shown in the 2013 Ornament article. A stubby cylinder of glass is patterned, then pulled.

The observations by Sprague, Atkins, and Hector that a popular use for glass beads in China was to make bead curtains and screens, and that plastic beads were taking over this market, might explain why the Boshan bead factory decided not to continue producing old-fashioned lampwork beads once the pre-WWII supply of Japanese-style pulled starburst rods ran out.

http://beadcollector.net/cgi-bin/anyboard.cgi?fvp=/openforum/&cmd=get&cG=136363530343&zu=313536303837&v=2&gV=0&p=

This is abundantly clear from Chinese paperweights—since they copy (ugly) Venetian paperweights.

The "sunburst" canes also copy a Venetian cane, closely related to ritorte (twisted filaments in clear glass), except that the layers are concentric in Venetian canes, and spiraled in Chinese canes. It is my belief (and I accept this could be all in my mind) that these canes are also floral, and represent chrysanthemum flowers (which have a long and significant symbolic history in China).

JDA.

These is no evidence for Venetian-like nor Japanese-like trailing in Chinese beads—even those from Boshan. The Chinese only learned to perform typical trailing strategies about ten years ago.

If you can, please show an example of a bead that you think has a trailed design rather than a cane design. JDA.

Asking $211.07 USD.

Various colors on offer, 40 cents on up

The description mentioning "glaze" is a good indication that the seller does not understand the differences between glassworking and ceramics production—as is rampant among people who have not studied glass, but have some knowledge of ceramics.** But we all know that bead descriptions are usually inadequate or mistaken—or just made-up. JDA.

** The first time I EVER saw Chinese millefiori beads (at a shop in San Francisco, Chinatown, toward the late 1970s), I was bowled-over. They were placed two side-by-side at the top of decorative tassels (as for scroll weights, or the like). When I asked what the beads were, the store owner told me they were "ceramic"—which I could tell they were not. I bought several tassels, and hoped to see more of these beads. But it was years, well into the 1980s, that that happened. I was encouraged by the Sprague and Liu/Kan articles. JDA.