Elbow (aka banana) shape millefiori in amber, brick and blue colors
35mm long with extra large 12mm diameter. Nice pattern, but this bead has a bad chip on one side
The canes that made this bead began with an amber core, cased in blue, then white, then brick color stripes were applied the length of the cane, giving the finished product a floral or sunburst look.
Trade beads almost always have holes big enough for 2mm leather cords
Millefiori, the Italian name for these colorful beads, means 1000 flowers
The beads are decorated with slices of glass canes created by, either bundling very thin glass tubes together to form the pattern and then fusing them, or encasing round, star or flower pattern canes in concentric layers of different colored glass.
The canes are sliced into murrini, which are laid out on a hot surface and the semi-molten glass cores of the beads are rolled over them, picking up the slices.
Made in Venice, Italy for the African trade mid-1800s to early 1900s
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