You always post the most beautiful beads. I liked the tabular one from the other day, as well. Happy Holidays.

These are some of the Millefiori from the 1920s that are usually used for bracelets! The curved tabular shape lends itself beautifully to bracelets! When I wear mine, I get many compliments!

This necklace never made it to Africa.
Hendrik

Hello Hendrik;

Maybe some of your beads would like to visit their cousins here in the USA?

A very nice display there. Thank you for the show.

Thomas Mercer
Dog Bone Crazy

Hi Thomas,

Amazing the endless variety of beads/pendants(5,5 x 3,5cm). Keep on showing.

Hendrik

10.5mm X 9.8mm 2mm hole

here is another oval version in yellow....

A picture can't do these beads justice. The translucent aqua millefiori And the beautiful crumb types both, are top shelf beads.

Top shelf beads!

it's so hard to choose but lately, they all seem to be topshelf beads.
Been relocating my stash and came across these...the Alaji J. specials from tucson'07. The colorless bead is 25mm x 23mm. Enjoy!

If you look at the millefiori closely you will notice many of them are not circular patterns but spirals. Also the colour combinations are not Venetian, specially with clear glass in the pattern.
This bead is Chinese/japanese, your date is about right.
Jamey can give you much more details of the story about this type. I find round beads like this occasionally.

Stefany

but, here is a shot of similar canes that spiral. I never realized they do spiral. The Venetian cane has the red star center and the spiral canes are Japanese/Chinese?.

Hello;

I have just received this information about the bead.

“The murrine are typically Venetian. They are from the Vacarri Company collection, dating to the 1920’s – 1930’s.”

Any further questions about the info I received please contact me privately.

Sincerely
Thomas Mercer

I've been pawing through my books, etc..looking for supporting material, because I know I have seen these somewhere.

not like Thomas' Vaccari bead. One might contact Thomas privately and simply confirm - his source probably got the bead along with many like it from Vaccari.

Thomas, your bead appears in the book "Venetian Beads, Mosaic Glass and Murrine" as being from Vaccari Company, first half of XXth C, as you stated.

Is there any doubt about mine being Venetian? From Jack DeWitt Tucson 2007. The exchange on BCN has me confused. Thanks Paula

The Chinese beads (made in China, but probably under the supervision of Japanese overseers during the occupation of China by Japan) clearly copy a Venetian prototype—and all of these beads were probably made in the 1920s to '30s.

The Venetian bead canes generally do not have a spiral structure, but rather are complete concentric layers. (If there are any exceptions, they are exceptions.) The manufacture of the Asian canes harkens back to antiquity, when some canes were composed by rolling up a pad of glass, forming a spiral structure.

The Venetian canes are derived from the tradition of making filigrana glass (often incorrectly called "latticino" or "latticinio"—often spelled with one or two "t"s), that was devised in imitation of Roman Period glasswares that had white or colored strands of glass (tiny canes) in a clear matrix.

Jamey

One should look at the whole bead and not fixate on just one slice of the cane. The majority of the slices show very little evidence of being spiral wound. The odds are more likely that an Italian bead maker distorted some of the cane, than a Japanese bead maker distorting most of the cane. On that premise alone the probability is higher for it being Venetian.

Here is a similar type of Venetian bead. happy holidays, Judy

This past February at the Tucson Show, I snapped this photo of a group of old Venetian beads from the 1920s-'30s that were being sold by Luigi Cattelan. As always, I greatly appreciate that Nicole and Luigi allow me to shoot their inventory. This particular group of Venetian beads is largely millefiori work, composed with filigrana canes of various color combinations. There are also a few other types included. This is a group of archaic or vintage beads that Luigi lucked onto. They were rather expensive—but they are something you don't see everyday.

I will show a mass of these beads, followed by the three specimens I bought from them.

Jamey

My few! They are 13mm x 22mm.

Is mine like the one on the right side of the three you pictured? Please describe this type. Thanks!

Hi Rick,

To tell you the truth, I haven't looked at it closely since February—but it probably is very similar, except for the shape.

Where did you get yours?

Jamey

A few years ago, I received a gift from Stefany Tomalin, consisting of an original necklace from the 1930s (judging by its style—it being short). Stefany sent it to me because she knows I am very interested in Chinese millefiori work, and had spent several years documenting as many examples as I could. (This began in the late 1970s, and has persisted to today. I have now documented an astounding number of these beads.)

However, the necklace turned out to be composed from Venetian beads, which is what I told Stef at the time. I also have documented a sample card that holds some of these beads (that I think I posted a couple of years ago—but I'll look for it again).

In any event, it is so obvious to me that the Chinese beads copy the Venetian beads, I would be surprised if anyone were to doubt this.

As already stated, the Chinese canes have a spiral structure that the Venetian canes do not; plus the centers of the Venetian canes are typically molded stars. Although the Chinese included molded designs in their canes—copying Venice—their filigrana canes do not generally have central stars, like the Venetian canes/beads.

Here's a photo from that necklace, showing a single bead, much enlarged.