Thanks for the talk Thomas as you can see it was very helpful, no mirrors yet but much better images.

Danny

These look a bit like Brian Kerkvliet's face canes. Yes? No? The overall bead including shape, aventurine, and optical depth reminds me of some of the work of the Pacific Northwest "ring of fire" folks like Brian or Patricia Frantz from the late 1990's.

If not, any chance you were thinking of Kevin O'Grady?

My two cents...

why when you take the time to post three groups of photos of the same piece that the first group gets what it gets as far as views go, the second usually half as many views, and the third less than the second .......... Has to make you stop and think just how interested are most viewers.

All my best ...... Danny

Many experienced forum users will click view all and open all the post at once and their views won’t be counted on the follow up threads. Or, they are following the treads links on the bottom of the message page and not being counted.

A very informative past post from Jamey and others (thank you all!) - I'm absolutely not sure, but the faces seem so well done on Fred's piece, and it looks very Italian to me......Fred, what does Jamey think about it? And what is Danny going to do with it?

Franchini was the person I thought of as soon as I saw the faces, they are so well done its amazing and from what you have posted I think this may be right.

I will also ask Fred and Jamey (I know you are looking but not commenting)what do you think?

I just measured the smallest face cane it is 4.6mm wide

All my best ...... Danny

Danny, I think this piece is a bit later than Franchini, here is a picture of real Franchini cane handles

Here are a few "Post Franchini" items that appear similar to yours

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I feel that Franchini pieces have greater clarity in their usage of millefiori and face canes. I believe this piece is late 19th century.

I would pay well for a couple of beads to go with this piece. But shades of brown in aventurini vary greatly; I have a lot of trouble matching aventurine glass in most beads.

Thank you for the beautiful photography Prince Daniel.

Sincerely, Sir Frederick

The book "Minature di vetro" shows face canes by Franchini and Moretti and some full figure canes by Barovier. Nearly all of the face canes from this period were portraits. The faces are a little difficult to see on the cane or umbrella handle and some of them are incomplete but they look more like Moretti canes than those by the other makers. The Moretti canes look to be composed of fewer elements than the Franchini canes (Franchini became completely obsessed with his work, was not very successful and ended his days in an asylum).

The handle bar moustache in some of the face canes can be seen in portraits by both makers but seems to become more common in the Moretti canes. The man with the moustache also has quite long hair otherwise he looks quite like the first of a series of portraits of Vincenzo Moretti from 1885. The series becomes more detailed, composed of more elements, over time.

The canes may well have been used long after they were originally made and the fact that some of them seem to be fragments might suggest that they were rejected for the highest quality initial work.

notice proportions of lot 58:

http://www.lhselmanltd.com/auc24/13.html