- Antique Venetian Lampwork beads on brown core. Eight in the center of the strand resemble the "fried egg pattern", others in the same palette are a more delicate version of the same idea and at the back there are a few well worn, square cross section beads with most of the trail designs worn away
- One 27-inch strand with 58 beads, most measure about 12x8mm
- Made in Venice, Italy mid-1800 to early 1900s for the African trade
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Lampworking is an ancient bead-making technique, which the Venetians developed in to an art during the 1300s. Basically it involves melting glass rods of various thicknesses over a flame and manipulating the glass, first to from the core of the bead, and then to decorate its surface. In Murano men typically made the cores and women decorated the beads. These beadmaking techniques are fundamentally the same as those used by contemporary beadmakers, except with better equipment.