I'd bet money that this came from the same workshop as the necklace I harvested my bead from, as it also shares the red lampwork bead with the blue/white/green/red swirl, as well as the same brass findings.
Thank you for showing/sharing this old, blackened? candy ball looking thing, I dare not name it here...anywhere else is fine! The pics I have & attached didn't have a name of the bead, what's in a name, well alot of us prefer our names we give/borrow(ed) from others. Maybe your's has one, here's the best place to share/learn as you already know. I don't have a name yet for your new raised, bumpy, multi-eye? bead - it looked familiar, & I did find it in these pics found in my ever-growing Chinese bead archive. Can see, it, too, appears to have been found along w/the same style/type selection that enough Art Deco era style Chinese export bead jewelery seems to share. With the bookchain style jewelry there appears were many examples sent over from China pre-WW11, an explosion of export Chinese jewelry seems to have happened during 1920-1940; most jewelry I shop thats for sale like these, are dated then (Art Deco) by their owners, knowingly or not, right! While her admirers share how Miriam Haskell had many competitors producing items mirroring her would you call Oriental (revival?) line? Either some of the beads the earlier makers used were by then already were antique and/or 'vintage' - or - they simply were new & maybe with more being made every day until design/examples were retired. There aren't any Chinese bead cards that recorded dates of any of their manufacture...are there? If no, then finding out the era assembled becomes important for dating them. Haskell started business in the 1930's I am led to believe from her followers that share parts of her life story on the net, considering she may have started selling even earlier as a novice/beginner/admirer, maybe her mom had quite an eye for beads/jewlery, too, many members here can/will relate none the less. She could have assembled jewelry thats older then her new company's line (starting in the 1930's) is the point to consider.
Most may know in 1940's that Haskell clasps for the first time are signed & show her company's US patent #, that's where the all important date, if a date is important & to anyone, isn't that where it comes in as any help to an admirer/researcher concerned with assiging date/period of time with any one/set of beads. Her unsigned 1930's necklaces have been identified by her admirers usually by comparing to other 'known' examples that I imagine some were found with their original sale price tag to authenticate while the others being scrutinized/autneticated in other ways (material/style/clasp comparisons) - and with fakes/copies all along the way to ever avoid.
If Haskell was inspired by earlier beads/necklaces she had seen, then those unsigned Chinese bead necklaces that aren't Haskell (unsigned/signed) pieces very well would/may be even older then Art Deco. Again though, the explosion of Chinese jewelry into the U.S. doesn't seem to have quite happened pre 1920, so that the amount of older antique items still in circulation are seldom seem/harder to find in the normal places. What I consider is an antique may be in different terms/time periods then someonelse might.
I wish I could contribute more, other then a pic, member Mel was right about those who do very little to nothing here, she admittingly meant members like me, I tried to change Kirk's name back from Jirk only the edit was too old, I did try to change to better behavior Mel, what are you gonna do.
I enjoy Chinese beads, though, beadiste, you are the only member here to come to mind, thats had any/most interest in keeping some sort of constant supply of reads & beads comin' for the rest of us, like me, who lurk, and wait for more than just the same old threads about beads already discussed at length, rather the more common beads and threads of the rare beads that I am also unfamiliar with and contribute zero other then admiring/gawking. Your bead is either common or not, been discussed at length or not, though I only have this one pic in my archive, now I have two more...now thanks to you! Yes, thank you. Having a bead in a collection/inventory and having a mere photo in an archive - you can see that both persons can be envious of the other. Bought any beads lately?! Yes! Guilty.
Since Chinese beads are hardly ever being discussed here the past oh, many years now if one were to do a search of the forum's archives, I'm interested to find out more details/less dates & time periods - as you are, beadiste, though this is how I would go about dating your bead with only this knowledge above. It may well not even be from China, just like the mosaic turquoise bead (seen in eBay pic) I tried to resurect an old thread on these last week or so ago. These Art Deco bookchain bracelets/necklaces appear to be made from beads exported from China, though it isn't unbelievable that the Chinese imported those and other admirable beads, beads like you may show.
There, at least I tried to contribute something...anything, of any real value! Please do agree/disagree/lurk/post at your leisure. Nick
They just don't look like Chinese export jewelry. Yes, some of the beads may be Chinese...or from India...or Japan...or Bohemia.
If Miriam Haskell was able to collect an assemblage of beads for her "oriental" pieces from the 1930s, so could someone in any of the other costume jewelry manufacturing places of Europe or New Jersey.
As you say, whether she was inspired by these necklaces to create her own versions, or if these are knock-offs of Haskell designs seems to be an open question.
So we have 3 specimens of an odd blown glass beads that appears only in these necklaces.
I remain puzzled.
Wow, you dug up another of the bumpy black beads in place on the same sort of box chain necklace! I continue to be puzzled as to why the silver (?) was applied to the outside - maybe so it wouldn't look like a tiny Christmas tree ornament?
Following your clue about Miriam Haskell, I found a couple of images of necklaces attributed to her, either sold or currently for sale on Etsy. I see what you mean about that turquoise chip bead.
Which necklaces might be originals and which could be knock-offs - and who did the knock-offs of whom [remember that Camel's Bell shop in Peking, that also had boutiques on cruise ships?] - does seem like a nice question.
"this is a typical necklace combination from the early C20th- there are usually large-holed glass, stone, wood, stained bone "coral" twigs, and caricature double-faced heads of demons or other subjects made from some kind of moulded composition that may be finished to look lacquered. Sometimes they have metal sleeves or collars at either end of the hole.
they seem to have been made for sale to tourists of the time rather than for local taste. they arent Ojime...
i have strands with very similar sequences of these beads."
"I would like to imagine that these beads were souvenirs from a world cruise on the Queen Mary or some other luxury voyage in the early 20th century. And these do seem to be "tourist" or "market" strands because they appear to be mostly commercial. Dozens of times, I have run into nearly identical necklaces on Portobello Road in London & occasionally on eBay.
The iconography on the molded beads is clearly Japanese: Treasures of the Takaramono and masks from the Noh Theatre, Okame and Oni. These images are clues to the origin of these beads but not necessarily evidence.
A reckless assumption would also be that all Japanese beads are extremely well crafted: Therefore, these could not be Japanese...In fact, I do not know whether they were made by Chinese or Japanese craftsmen. Meanwhile, a friend likes to say that such examples were probably made by Chinese under the direction of Japanese entrepreneurship. Personally, I feel there are more clues which support the theory they are Chinese."
Re the thread about Paula's "ojime" necklace, and the Haskell-ish charm necklaces - both of these share those molded composition beads with Japanese motifs.
Like the layered lacquer Japanese ojime-style beads, cloisonne, cinnabar, Japanese glass beads - combined into touristy or costume jewelry far from their place of manufacture?
After all, look at all the "oriental" necklaces created in the 1990s by Judith Ubick and many other, using beads shipped far from their place of origin.
