Look carefully and you'll see a few red stripes mixed in
Made in Venice in the 1850-1910, bought in Ivory Coast 1972
Because the colors and patina match trade beads of the same vintage, these antique seed beads are ideal spacers to use with your black and white Venetian lampworked beads such as Rattlesnake and other designs
New seed beads are less expensive than real antique or vintage ones. So they are now being exported in bulk to Africa to be strung like old ones, and sometimes they are even "antiqued" with dirt and other substances.
You can tell old seed beads from new ones because they are less regular in size and shape, often more flat than rounded at the ends, and they are never bright and shiny, nor uniformly matte like acid etched or sandblasted beads. Instead they develop a lovely smooth semi-matte patina.
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