Made in Europe after 1890s for trade with Africa and other developing regions
Distinguishable from new white hearts by variations in size, shape, and color of the beads. Antique white hearts are a soft pinkish red. Vintage and New White hearts are bright red, but Vintage ones vary in size and shape as well as somewhat in color, while new ones are identically shaped and sized.
Named for their white core covered by a thin layer of translucent red glass, these beads were traded from Europe to every continent, and known variously as Cornaline d'Aleppo for their resemblance to carnelian beads coming east from India through Syria and Turkey or Hudson Bay Beads because early settlers in that area traded them to Native Americans for fur pelts
Developed in the 1600s, and produced in Italy, Bohemia (now Czech Republic) and France, they had a lovely soft red color until selenium replaced gold in the mix in 1890s, giving them a much brighter red.
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