Message:

<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 1943199, member: 5833&quot;]Only bother to read this if your contention is that some or all of the beads date to c. Imperial Roman era.</p><p><br /></p><p>Hope we&#039;re just quibbling over language.&nbsp; I inhabit a world in which &#039;modern&#039; is applied to anything that dates post-Renaissance.&nbsp; Because of my interests, I see a fair bit of Roman glass &amp; own a little.&nbsp; The title says &#039;ancient&#039;, so my expectations were for something quite different.&nbsp; These beads all look like they could have been made in my lifetime.&nbsp; I&#039;m vintage, not yet antique.&nbsp; There&#039;s nothing fake about the beads.&nbsp; They are what they are &amp; do not pretend to be anything else.</p><p><br /></p><p>There&#039;s a big jump between old looking &amp; ancient.&nbsp; You&#039;re correct that the large beads have a resemblance to some Roman glass.&nbsp; This very short article explains that there was a concerted effort to rediscover the technique:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.glassofvenice.com/millefiori.php" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.glassofvenice.com/millefiori.php" rel="nofollow">https://www.glassofvenice.com/millefiori.php</a></p><p><br /></p><p>And this is a museum-certified example of what Roman millefiori work looks like:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/249733" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/249733" rel="nofollow">https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/249733</a></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/gr/original/sf17194497color.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>An excellent suggestion:</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>But also do a search for millefiori beads on the market today so you can compare both.</p><p><br /></p><p>It&#039;s possible they were once used as trade beads, as proposed above.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>They were imported from Italy, not made in Africa, to the best of my knowledge.&nbsp; I used to spend a lot of time in a bead shop operated by someone who also had a gallery for ethnographic art.&nbsp; Picked up some knowledge from him about the trade beads he had among his wares.&nbsp; I remember many long heavy strands of stripy cane glass; can&#039;t recall any millefiori beads.&nbsp; My recollections do not count as evidence of anything.</p><p><br /></p><p>Conclusion of all this prolixity: I think &#039;vintage&#039; definitely applies; &#039;antique&#039; possibly applies; &#039;ancient&#039; definitely does not apply.</p><p><br /></p><p>There is one bead that looks as if it has been kicking around for a while:</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]245992[/ATTACH]</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I don&#039;t think we can assume all beads on the strand are the same age.&nbsp; They&#039;re a disparate bunch.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

Your name or email address:

Do you already have an account?

• No, create an account now.
• Yes, my password is:
• Forgot your password?

Stay logged in