I don't recall ever hearing "thousand eye" as a name for these beads.

For a very long time (decades, actually), I thought that the name "skunk bead"—a popular Native American (Plains) name for black beads with white spots—was an odd choice. This being because I thought of skunks as having white stripes—and there are plenty of black beads with white stripes.

However, about ten years ago I was informed (by a high-school student friend), that, in fact, there ARE spotted skunks. And they have a much wider range of occurrence than I would have suspected. So, knowing this (now) the name no longer seems inappropriate. Just unexpected.

Jamey

We moved last summer from a City loft to a home in the Mountains and are surrounded by wildlife- deer, bald eagles, owls, raccoons, skunks, even black bears.

One visitor is our local skunk, who you catch wind of at night if the windows are open. A solitary nocturnal character, he spends hours digging holes in the lawn looking for big fat grubs to eat. Have not captured a good photo yet, only grainy video.

There are also albino and white skunks, and skunks with reverse markings- white where black would normally be... My Dad has a white skunk that eats the cat food he puts out for the feral cats.

I have seen the back and white beads called both skunk and "thousand eye" beads in reference material, and have also heard them referred to by both names.

Have noticed and collected some similar smaller black beads with white dots- but with many less dots than the typical Venetian Trade Beads. Perhaps some are Czech, no idea, but some do look like Jamey's example from the Met. with the fewer white dots (which are obviously lamp wound I would venture to say). Am stumped by the Met description: " Glass: stained and luster-painted". Not to mention the attribution of AGE..9th-12th C.

have a lovely evening,

Anne