Beautiful, dark amber focal bead with decorative cracks 24x36mm. These dark rich mahogany brown colors are increasingly hard to find.
Most African Amber beads have perforations of 2mm or larger
The material these beads are made of is an early resin called phenolic thermosetting resin. It was developed in 1910. Bakelite is the best known brand name among several.
It probably started coming to Africa as a substitute for real Baltic amber in the 1930s and trade increased into the 1950s according to recent research by Rosana Falabella.
When I first started buying African beads in Abidjan in 1970, the Amber beads were the most expensive.They had been clearly accepted into the culture, mostly by women in Morocco, Mauritania and Mali, where they were worn as necklaces and also in the hair.
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.
All the African Amber beads being posted in June 2025 are from the collection of Joyce Diamanti, world traveler, bead collector, researcher, writer, editor and educator. Mine remain in strands for the time being. See AFO-106, 119, 120, 122, and AFO-124. The Berber strands AFO-157-AFO-170 are a newer resin.
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