These are the first examples I have seen outside an archaeological context. Great to see!

These three beads were collected in Cotonou, Benin.
Dahomey, Benin, so maybe there is a French connection.
Size length x diam. - perf. = 14,4 x 15,9 - 1,7 mm
The bead in front shows it's black core.

Hi Karlis,
you can find at this link of Picard beads also two examples, see picture nr 27a
Thanks for your excellent work, Hans

Jamey posted this in 2008 and said he thought it was a muracad, also known as kiffa.

This type of beads have always intrigued me.
They are fairly rare. I found the few we have in the Ivory Coast, occasionally mixed on strands of early generation "Rattle snake" like the ones shown by Beadist. One of them is hourglass shaped.
Some do have a grayish or beige core, some don't (but they may all have a core not always seen and covered up like Bodom beads). It would be interesting to see a broken one to learn more, anybody?
They are probably originating from the Krobo in Ghana and possibly related to some type of Bodom.
JP

Hi Chris,

First, I have not read the Beads article yet—though I expect to soon. I am on-record as having the opinion that "frit-core" is mistaken on two counts. The material is not "frit"—and the interior is a base.

The beads are intriguing and provocative. And I would be inclined to think they are closely related to the early larger ovoid trade beads that are likewise dark with white patterns—those having dots suggesting a floral pattern. (Also copied in glass at Venice, much later in time.) It would be informative and instructive to have a more-clear idea of the composition interior—and, in fact, the whole process of manufacture.

Regarding the beads I showed, discussed later in this thread, I think the following should be considered. I say this, because I have documented what I believe are two separate but similar-looking beads. I think we have an early imported trade bead, made by an obscure industry, probably European, and perhaps France. (This being nothing more than a guess.) I suppose these early beads are specimens of pate de verre; or, at the least, share some points of manufacture in-common. And they are recovered in the American Northeast and Southeast; and as well as Africa and perhaps elsewhere.

I also think that these beads were (or may have been) the prototypes for an uncommon series of muraqad ("Kiffa") beads. And, in fact, I wonder if these were not some of the earliest muraqad beads made (?). Composed BEFORE the colorful trend that dates from ca. 1920, when muraqad were devised (that also have parallels to pate de verre and powderglass-beadmaking)—though these need not be as early as the composition beads.

So, my opinion is that there are two similar-looking groups of beads in this discussion. And we should not confuse one with the other. Jamey

Thanks for all the images! I wish I had seen them before I published the last installment of the frit-core bead saga in BEADS. It would have been nice to have representatives from Africa.

Some of the beads are rather crude in their manufacture and I wonder if some of them are local African products mimicking earlier European ones? Unfortunately, can't tell too much from the pics.

I think it might be of interest to write a short article on the African varieties and I wonder if those of you who posted images would allow me to use them in the article (with credit to you)? You can write me direct at karlis4444@gmail.com.