These beads have been laboriously sliced from the ends of large beads to make them easier to wear all over the head as was popular in parts of Mauritania, Mali and Morocco. They are flat on one side and domed on the other.
The one in the foreground of the images retains the smooth surface of one end of the original bead. The one in the background show marks indicating it was cut from the center of a larger beads and manually carved to mimic shape of the other
The material these vintage/antique beads are made of is an early synthetic called phenolic thermosetting resin. It was developed in 1910. Bakelite is the best known brand among several European manufacturers producing faux amber beads, jewelry and household products before World War II.
Phenolic resin amber beads probably started coming to Africa as a substitute for real Baltic amber in the 1920s and 1930s and trade lasted into the 1950s according to recent research by Rosanna Falabella.
Several generations of newer resin beads have followed, some better than others, at a variety of prices, but none can approach the beauty and durability of the original phenolic resins which are now almost 100 years old, and wear it well.
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