There is also man made "compressed nugget." Real chunks of stone held together with resin and dyes.

Both "block" and compressed nugget are made in blocks or loaves. I've posted pictures in the past.

http://www.beadinpath.com/index.php/Weekly-Beadditudes-with-Dara/the-collectible-beads-of-jl-hubbell.html

And an offering on justbeads.com, priced by the bead:

http://www.justbeads.com/listings/details/index.cfm?itemnum=973450536

I know that Gabrielle Liese was writing about the Hubbell bead for a long time before she passed away. I wonder what has happened to her research material.

http://navajotextiles.com/history.htm#rug

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Harvey_(entrepreneur)

http://www.nps.gov/nr/feature/wom/2001/colter.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_May

No, Hubbell beads are glass beads simulating turquoise.

Your Czech glass beads look like Hubbell beads to me.

Jamey bought a sample board of them in Czech. Here is a picture of Jamey's card cropped to just the turquoise colored ones and the whole card. This came from the bead and button antique shop you've visited.

I have the exact same sample card that Jamey has, indeed from that same shop. I also have a few other sample cards with tuquoise coloured glass 'stones' on them. The Czechs refer to all cabochons and facetted glass pieces as 'stones', no matter if they are made to resemble actually stone or not.
In that same antique shop, where the owner speaks no English and almost no German, he once prevented me from buying a big bag of what I thought were beads. He said: 'Stein', meaning stone in German, indicating that they had no holes.

The first sample card has only the the turquoise colours, the other has pieces that I presume are intended to similate jade, malachite, tortoise shell and at the bottom also some type of quartz, carnelian, tortoise shell again and two types of agate.

There are no doubt more bcn members who went to the Bead Expo shows and symposiums - some of those folks could tell us when they all started.

They were put on by Recursos de Santa Fe and Peter Francis, Jr.

http://www.recursos.org/

Shortly after Peter's death the shows ended anyway because of the years-long remodel of the complex the event was held at in Santa Fe.
Meanwhile, Recursos sold the show to Interweave (owned by Aspire Media) who for a few years aggressively bought everything bead related possible, sort of going for the "Starbucks of Beads" goal - and basically tossed the idea of real symposiums in favor of more classes using commercial materials being sold by most of the vendors. Kinda like any other big bead show. Consequently, these shows are attracting many new hobbyists, but fewer collectors of historic or ethnic beads or world-class artist beads.

I had longed to go to these events, first hearing about them from our favorite African traders, who liked them second best only to Tucson for trade bead sales as well as over-all event quality.

Here's the aggrey beads article from thebeadsite.

The story was first brought to light by Sorensen in his article for Arizona Highways. (1971—see the attached photo.)

He presented the "facts" in a garbled and incorrect manner.

It was not Don Lorenzo Hubbell who "had beads made for him...."

A generation LATER, his son acquired Czech glass beads that imitate turquoise, and offered them for sale. The rest of the story about 'Indians pawning their real turquoise seasonally..., and wearing Hubbell beads as substitutes....' can probably be dismissed as folklore. In any event, all this took place much later than Sorensen remarked.

The story of "Hubbell beads" is well-presented in the Catalogue produced at The Bead Museum for our exhibit related to Native American beads and trade beads. The essays that refer to Hubbell beads were composed by Gabrielle, and myself.

Jamey

On the left, plain molded turquoise-blue Czech beads and pendants. Looking carefully, you can see these pendants in a necklace on the AH magazine cover. These are considered to be included in the "Hubbell" family. I was with Gabrielle and Ted Liese, when this was purchased AT the Hubbell Trading Post memorial institution.

On the right, an unusual instance where a Navajo squash blossom necklace is set with round Czech glass "stones" rather than actual turquoise. The multiple pendants replace typical squash blossom pendants.

I created this image after Gabrielle's passing, in an attempt to get funding for a video to honor her life, in promoting beads and bead research, and operating The Bead Museum. My request was not funded, much to my disappointment.

JDA.