Rare Antique Venetian White Heart thin cylinder beads from the African trade
21-inch strands of thin tubes 3-4mm diameter and 15-20mm long
Aside from some very overpriced fancy white hearts these were the only antique white hearts to be found in Tucson this year and I bought them all! They looked pretty bad and I got them for a good price which I'm passing on. They look 300% better after I ran them through the dishwasher!
If you try this trick at home be sure to put the beads in a mesh bag so when a strand breaks you can retrieve your beads without breaking the dishwasher!
Named for their white core covered by a thin layer of translucent red glass, these beads were traded from Europe to every inhabited continent. Also known variously asCornaline d'Aleppofor their resemblance to carnelian beads coming east from India through Syria and Turkey, orHudson Bay Beadsbecause early settlers and Mountain Men in that area traded them to Native Americans for pelts.
Developed in the 1600s, and produced mostly in Italy, but later also in Bohemia (now Czech Republic) and France, they had a lovely soft red pomegranate or light burgundy color until selenium replaced gold in the mix in 1890s. Selenium gave them a much brighter, harsher red. Selenium was abandoned in the 1930s because it was more expensive than gold at that time, but by then the global bead trade was winding down and the gold price keeps rising, so it's safe to say that essentially all the softer red beads are pre-1900.
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