Description

Four striped red white blue chevron glass beads.
Very old and rare beads made in Venice in the late 18th century and traded to Africa.
Bead size: approx. diameter: 16 mm. Fro hole to hole: 12-13 mm. Hole of 2 mm.

European glass chevron trade beads were certainly the first to be traded in Africa as early the 15th century. They show a very characteristic “rosetta” o “star” layered decoration attained by giving form to glass in star shaped moulds. Layer after layer are applied to form a cane which is then cut in cylinders and ground to show the alternated chevron or star layers. They were first produced in the Venetian island of Murano at the Barovier glass factory. The rarest examples are very much coveted and they are quite commonly tagged by the number of layers they show.