Featured Old cobalt blue glass bead

Hi,

I bought this nice glass bead. According to the seller it‘s from the Middle East and from the 19th century or earlier.
It‘s about 16x12mm and weighs about 4.1g.
The form is unregular, the surface pretty rough from weathering.
The hole is uneven and is about 1.5mm wide, a toothpick barely goes through it. There is still a small amount of earth in it.

Is there a method to determine this piece to a specific region and century? The pictures are magnified.

Thanks a lot,
Simon

 

Me like, whatever it is.

 

Me, too
The cobalt blue is lovely. Almost looks like a rough, high quality blue sapphire.

 

I wonder if that isn't Roman. Can you get one pulled back more distant photo if you would?

 

That’d be super nice.
Of course, thanks for your help. Lightning isn‘t the best, it‘s about 18.15 in Germany

 

I am inclined to go with the roman. The dirt is consistent with my roman beads. look at the dirt with a loop and see if you see in iridescent. I have two beads the same shape and size as yours on my necklace. The one is black glass the other pottery.

 

That's better, many thanks. And I'm sticking with Roman. Lovely bead, I'd wear that on a thin silver chain. Or a nice silk cord.

 

I‘ll definetely take a look at it under my stereo-microscope. Thanks

That‘s nice to hear. Than it‘s probably much older than a couple hundred years. It‘s my first antique bead and I didn’t want to spend much money on it. I think 18€ is a good deal. I‘m going to wear it on a bracelet or necklace.

Thanks a lot to all of you

 

I'm not offering any opinion because I certainly don't know. I did want to offer a little about some beads that are from an 18th C buried context as examples of what some beads can look like when buried that length of time.

These are smaller than yours but I thought the surface and dirt might be interesting. (I was fortunate enough so have had the fun of helping sort tiny items from the dirt in this project so loved finding the beads, pins, fish scales etc.)

https://www.mountvernon.org/preservation/archaeology/archaeology-online//filter/type/Beads/2/

 

Thank you very much! That’s definetely an interesting site. They look similar to mine in shape and surface. The hole of mine seems to be a little smaller though.
Glass is really hard to date…

 

Especially lampwork. The materials and techniques really haven't changed much.

 

Glass is as it has been for millennia, basically. That blue is very Roman.

 

I inspected this piece a bit more under my microscope and under different loupes.
If there is a iridescence, it‘s super subtle. I can only see a dull glassy sheen.

20xmag




5xmag

 

I removed some of the dirt inside with a toothpick (collected it for later analysis). There‘s a thin layer of a white weathered surface, possibly with some mineral deposits.