Featured Help with millefiori (?) necklace -- vintage or new?

Can anyone tell me if millefiori is the correct term for these glass beads? They look different that other millefiori beads I've seen online. Are they vintage Italian/Venetian or new beads from China? I'm getting kind of suspicious about glass beads now that so many beautiful new beads are available online and in stores. The clasp looks 1950s-60s, but it isn't signed. The beads are hand-knotted with blue and white thread, so the knots are inconspicuous. The strands are all the same length, so they don't lay flat when worn. Any help/opinions would be appreciated.

 

Chevron beads...

~Cheryl

 

They're not millefiori; the resemblance is in that cane glass look. See:

https://www.aworldofbeads.com/store/p59/15mm_Oval_Cane_Glass_Beads.html

Think a home craftsperson has given new life to a vintage clasp. Those clam shell bead tips are not something you would see on a commercially made item.

 

Wow, that was fast. Thank you! I looked up chevron beads on eBay and found all kinds, some called Venetian chevron trade beads, African trade beads, and one "Venetian Chevron Trade Bead Navajo Bench Bead Necklace." I also found new handmade glass chevron loose beads online, but they didn't look quite as refined. So I'm still wondering if mine are new or vintage.

 

Thank you Bronwen. Are you thinking the beads are new?

 

Yes, I think newer than the clasp.

 

Am I also seeing it strung on 2 strands of bead cord twisted together, 1 blue & 1 white? Interesting solution to getting cord thick enough that knots are larger than holes in beads.

 

Yes, they're hand-knotted with blue and white cord/thread (probably one strand of each), which makes the knots less conspicuous. When I first looked at the necklace, I thought the knots were tiny blue and white spacer beads.

 

Clasp looks as though it came from a 60s/70s West German or maybe Japanese necklace.

 

Oddly, I was thinking this is probably legit, but new, Italian. Generally you don't see the two colors twisted together on craft-made necklaces or on Chinese stuff. The chevron beads look real and I've seen those cap ends on plenty of factory-made pieces. It could be a Chinese piece out to fool me, but I doubt it was made at somebody's kitchen table.

 

I wonder why the bead holes are at a different location than the thousands online?

 

These look like they were made like millifiore beads (I never can spell that word) with a bunch of cane slices fused together. I like them better this way myself; you can see the designs. No idea why it was done differently this time.

 

they are really nice........but really strange too....

 

Interesting observation. Maybe because they were made in imitation of Italian glass beads, but in a country not completely familiar with/bound by traditional practice in orientation of beads?

 

I just found an article by Sarah Corbett on the history of chevron beads http://ethnicjewelsmagazine.com/chevron-beads/
She says the early examples were mainly blue white and red.
Quoting parts of the article, "The first Chevron beads were made in Murano in Italy at the end of the 14th century." (Some were as small as 5mm; mine are 8mm.) "The Chevron bead regained popularity at the beginning of the 20th century when four and six layer models appear on various sample cards from the Venetian bead traders." (My beads have six layers.)

Continued quotes from "Ethnic Jewels Magazine," by Sarah Corbett. "The production of the Venetian Chevron bead continues to this day although in small quantities and made by specialist glass artists such as Luigi Catalan."
"During the 1980s chevron style beads were made in Indian glassmaking centres rather than being created with the traditional
techniques. ... The work tends to be less precise and the glass quality differs from those constructed in Murano. Recent replicas of the Chevron bead have emerged from the Chinese production centres. They are made in the traditional Venetian way, we can identify the new wave of Chinese beads by the different quality and colours of the glass used for production."

Based on this article, I'm still puzzled about my necklace.

 

i'm not...they look new to me....

 

I was still curious to know more, so I messaged Ethnic Jewels Magazine and the person who responded referred me to the Ethnic Jewels Community on Facebook. So far two people said they are Venetian/Italian and thought/guessed the beads were mid-1900s. Two people wrote the following explanations of how they were made:
Uwe Wantke "Two or more slices of a rosetta cane were fused together. Yes, Venetian..."
Floor Kaspers "Chevrons are beads that are cut from a tube with a star pattern. By grinding it, the actual chevron pattern comes out. These are millefiori or mosaic beads decorated with star canes. The cane for these are made very similar to the tube for chevrons, but instead of having a tube that is coldworked for chevrons, the star cane is cut into slices and applied to a bead while hot, at a torch."

 

Was trying to figure out how they were made after the orientation of the hole was pointed out - thanks for sharing that information...

~Cheryl

 

Thank you evelyb30 for your explanation -- it's very similar to the one given above by Floor Kaspers.

 

The latest opinion from the Ethnic Jewels Community on FB is that the beads are Indonesian new beads . I did some searching online for Indonesian round millefiori and mosaic beads and found some that are similar (but not identical), so now I suspect that's what they are, unfortunately, although I still think they're pretty.