Antique Venetian White Hearts 4-5mm on 23-inch strands
These are lovely strands, collected in Africa in the 1970s. Unlike many more recently exported strands, the beads are quite uniform in color, shape, size, and are all in perfect condition
Named for their white core covered by a thin layer of translucent red glass, these beads were traded from Europe to every continent, and known variously as Cornaline d'Aleppo for their resemblance to carnelian beads coming east from India through Syria and Turkey, or Hudson Bay Beads because early settlers in that area traded them to Native Americans for fur pelts
Developed in the 1600s, and produced in Italy, Bohemia (now Czech Republic) and France, they had a lovely soft red color until selenium replaced gold in the mix in 1890s, giving 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 so it's safe to say that essentially all the softer red beads are pre-1900.
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