It was not untill my third or fourth visit to his booth that I spotted it. He said he kept forgetting to put it out.
Most African bead sellers will have a special stash they keep for the collectors, and you will only see them if you ask.

He dis say that John Picard and Tasart and some others had a share in getting the box empty. They apparantly have been going through it for years.

Yes, he has had this container for years, it once was full of super high end collector singles, Bodoms, Chevrons, Fancies etc....I think he stopped adding to it a couple of years ago, I keep seeing the same beads and I know they have been gone over once or twice by the other collectors, there are still some nice beads in the box but they are more the typical beads one finds

..typical beads....you are very special with your beautiful collection...LOL...I would like to have some of this red outer layered Chevrons at 6 and 8 o´clock first image....SOME, of course...

do a Facebook search for:
Degumay Sumareh
He will be happy to oblige you! :) tell him I sent you!!!

Oh my! Those yellow striped beads in the second picture look really nice! Where can we find Degumay outside of the Tucson fair?

Are u Floorkasp?never know u are,visit my booth four times.see u next year

First is a set of two face beads. To me, they look like recently made copies. The seller insisted they were original. Your thoughts?

Second one was funny: it is a framed strand of pretty cheap powderglass beads with a metal pendant. The sign states it is a medal from 1704, and the beads are Hudson Bay trade beads. Ehh, maybe not?

I search "Indian Trade Bead" and "Hudson Bay Company" daily on Ebay. Frames such as this one are coming up more and more often - pairing modern day powderglass beads with repro HBC brass, copper and pewter pendants. The pendants usually have a beaver on them; the dates vary by pendant. Each of the frames has a typed/aged description in it. All are current repro items intended for the naieve buyer.

Check out Ebay listing 170777603983 for the very same supposed 1704 beaver pendant.

The seller with the face beads is hoping for as many naive buyers as possible. The sale of one fake face bead at the value of a genuine ancient one would probably cover the whole 2 week booth in Gem Mall. And they are worth perhaps 10.00 each...

I believe this seller was a naive buyer himself.....
He was not primarily a bead dealer, and was very proud showing them to me.
I told him I doubted his beads, and he was, I think, genuinely surprised.
He did not know a lot about beads, we had a great talk, and I ID-ed a few of his other beads for him. He was keen to learn, but on these he was clearly misinformed.
This was at the show in the Tucson Convention Center, from the Tucson Gem and Mineral Society.

The seller of the so called Hudson Trade beads was a very grumpy man, selling a lot of suspicious looking stuff.

I have great fun going through the pretty cheap mixed strands to see what treasures there were to be found. They were a great way to expand mostly to the variety of my collection.

First shows what I think are older powder glass beads. Second a nice mixed bunch of 'Russian Blue' Bohemian beads.

My first, albeit small, bumpy beads, and some interesting flat yellow slower beads.
Second picture shows small (4mm wide, 8mm long) semi-translucent yellow fancy beads.

Any comments welcome on these tinyy beads, all no more than 5 or 6 mm.

Guess few people show the small beads on here, but they are really interesting. I never really liked other Venetian beads than millies, but I may just get hooked on these tiny beads.

I like the detail on these tiny fancies.
The second picture shows a mixed set of interesting beads from the lot. Same here: comments welcome!

Top row of bottom photo - from left side
1) Venetian, 3-layer drawn bead with unmolded layers - called "chevron family" or "Nueva Cadiz associated" by the Picards. I could not find a detailed reference by I believe these type of beads to be 19th century or earlier.
2) "Moon" bead, probably Venetian, also likely 19th cent or earlier.
3) Hand faceted bead, Dutch or German, 18th-19th century, referred to as "Dogon" beads.

Here are several variations of beads that appear to imitate, of course the old saying, "what came first? The chicken or the egg?" applies here, I assume the blue drawn beads are of an earlier time frame and the Kiffa makers copied the designs

Very educational. Anyway, mine looks exactly as the small drawn bead. It is somewhat broken, so it is clear to see how it is made. It is a drawn bead.

First shows some glass that was reworked, I guess, to make pendants. It includes one piece of pierced seven layer chevron.

Second a strand of tiny pieced of reworked mixed trade beads.

Because of the colours, I thought they would be venetian beads reworked into this shape, just like the longer yellow pendant. So are you saying they are krobo (or at leas the green one is) or that they were made like this originally in Venice?

yes they are venetian and may be a similar date to the venetians that are not symmetrical but resemble spiral shells- as they turn up in similar colourways- you can probably see the glass has been fluid, its not fused powder glass granules...

The top two are Venetian
They are weird shaped probably made for the African trade, more common in Yellow than others colors
The Yellow ones are on card in the Murano Museum, we mentioned them on an exhibit
JP

Also on two Sick cards in several colors
JP

Here is a small card with very similar beads, collected in Venice and today in our Museum
JP

I love these small chevrons that are so varied. Second picture shows two black aventurine fancy beads from the same mixed strands. Not sure if they are indeed Venetian. Some white residu in the holes, and they are in a very good condition. They could be Indian, but I have not seen this exact style from India before. tehy appear to be well made. Any thoughts?

sold by weight, quite well made. I don't know if they are still made in India. And I'm not surprised they got mixed in strands.
Thanks for your great reportage Foor !
paeonia

I couldn't show without clay as I think I have to soak them in water for that. But the holes are at least 3mm large...these are large beads at 15-35 long, 13-20mm large.

Looking at them closely, still not 100% surem but I think it is most likely that they are Indian. They are better made than the ones I used to get from India, though. I will compare them to mine when I get back.

First picture has three beautiful strands of turqoise. I talked to a turqoise miner, and showed him the necklace I had made last week from some of his very cheap mixed beads. He wanted to have it, to give to his wife for their anniversary. So we swapped: my necklace for some of his top quality turqoise.

Second picture is block, or reconstituted stone. Some say it is 85% stone and 15% resin, others say that it is all pure resin with coloured dust. Not sure yet, there appear to be different types and qualities out there. Thought I'd get some so I can compare it to beads and stones.

"Reconstituted" is a marketing term and very inaccurate.
No real stone is harmed in the making of so called reconstituted stone.
It's all plastic with swirls of dye or other colors of plastic swirled into it.

The only block material I've seen that had *any* real stone in it is some lapis block. A very nice blue colored resin with tiny chips of pyrite in it. The plastic undercuts the harder pyrite when you polish it. If there was any real material in the block you show it would be harder than the surrounding plastic. Block is all very smooth when polished.

There is a man made material that does use real stone. "Compressed nugget" is the cutters term for larger chunks of real stone formed into a block with resin and dye. The so called "purple turquoise" sold by Colbaugh and Dakota Stone is compressed nugget with real turquoise and red dyed resin. Recently they started to make a gold colored matrix by adding metallic epoxy material similar to the liquid metal repair products. This newer version is called "Bronze infused purple turquoise."

When compressed nugget is sliced you can see the edges of the nuggets and chips of real stone. If you look carefully at the Dakota Stones pictures you can see small pieces of real surrounded by metallic bronze in the sea or dyed resin. The stone is both dyed and stabilized by this process.
http://www.dakotastones.com/purple-turquoise.aspx

I found a seller at the "Club Show" - The TGMS show at the Tucson Convention Center with some compressed nugget made with "metal matrix," real materials, dyes and resin. He allowed me to photograph the blocks of product. The seller was from Texas. I don't know if this is the material made by Colbaugh in Kingman or from another manufacturer.

The top blocks are the so called "Rainbow Calsilica" that is probably entirely man made.