20 ANTIQUE EARLY 1800s BOHEMIAN MOLDED FACETED LONG OVAL BLUE GLASS TRADE BEADS

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20 ANTIQUE EARLY 1800s BOHEMIAN MOLDED FACETED LONG OVAL BLUE GLASS TRADE BEADS:
$60.00

STRAND OF 20 ANTIQUE EARLY TO MID-19TH CENTURY BOHEMIAN MOLDED FACETED LONG OVAL PERIWINKLE BLUE GLASS BEADS ~ TRADED IN WEST AFRICAThese very old trade beads ~ often misrepresented as \'Russian blue\' despite the fact that they\'re obviously molded, not drawn ~ have seen a lot of wear in their long lives. As a result, most are in fair to good condition, many with worn chips and flakes, and and a few with imperfections dating to the time of manufacture. The process was primitive and time-consuming: the molded facets needed to be polished on a lapidary wheel, and the flash (the excess glass that squeezed between the seams of the mold) removed, again on the wheel.In the 5th photo, the top right bead shows a common imperfection ~ a split parallel to the perforation. Directly beneath is a bead with a long flake at the end. The bead in the bottom row illustrates that the two halves of the mold are filled separately before they\'re pressed together: the glass in one half was not completely mixed, and shows up as a darker blue. The strand measures a bit over 59cm (23-1/4\"), for a per-bead average length of 29.5mm (1-5/32\"). The beads range from 13 to 14mm (a bit over 1/2 to a bit under 9/32\") in diameter, due to slight variations in the molds.Click and zoom in for close-ups.