Now in broad daylight, using a magnifying glass I noticed the following

- the “Baule face” beads are less weathered than the eye beads: different production source or just newer beads?

- on some of the eye beads there is a partly lightly shining meridian, nothing like prossers. Is it a gripping tool that left this mark rather than the marks of a mould. See pics.

Present conclusion
- eye beads not Venetian. The white/black on Venetian beads is more intense. If only I could break up the strand (it is not mine) to check the openings more closely.
- “Baule face” beads might be Venetian. The yellow is so so close to the real thing . The holes are 1mm smaller than the eye beads. But do round "Baule face" beads exist?

What do you think?

Martine,
My initial reaction is that the Baule face beads on this strand are copies, from Indonesia. The color of the yellow trailing seems off, but color is hard to tell from photos and monitors vary. However both of these bead designs on this strand have the rough appearance around the holes that I see with some Indonesian beads. Also as you pointed out, the Venetian version of this bead is tabular, although usually quite a thick tabular. But not round.

I have only one Venetian Baule face bead in my collection. I'm posting pictures of it so you can see the different aspects. You can see that this bead has a lot of irregular wear, including a loss of a lot of the yellow trailing. I'm sure there are other beads in better condition, so hopefully someone will post some pics for you...

Also, a couple of years ago another bead pal was trying to figure out if an entire strand of Baule face beads was original Venetian or copies. Very hard to tell from the photos. Now that a second strand of "identical" Baule face beads has appeared, I am even more sure that copies are being made. I also have some very poor copies of this design which is more evidence that this design is actively being copied. The copies are so poor that no one would mistake them for antiques.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1158883637/antique-venetian-baoule-face-tabular?click_key=c5a77bc3b8745474ca3e28661f2d518b94fa4e6f%3A1158883637&click_sum=2ecec3d8&ref=shop_home_active_82&cns=1&sts=1

Good pictures from various angles.

I received the Venetian Baule face bead (top solo bead), and it looks exactly the same make as my others.

This is really helpful. Thank you. Now I understand better what the 'rough'part around the hole means. I understood from Hendrik that this large cut is also typical for Indonesian beads.
Joyce mentioned that round Venetians were made.
I will have to re-examine the"Baule" beads I have, I thought they were genuine Venetian tabulars since I bought them from trustful sources.
They are the ones at the bottom of the strand.
Again, I learned a lot :-). Thank you!

Joyce sent me some pix of her Baule face beads - Venetian - showing a flattened tabular version and a more rounded version.

Thank you, my Venetians look like the flattened one. Great to see the round one. The only one I ever saw!