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Marble Beads From The African And Asian Trade


lopacki

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Marble beads from the African and Asian trade

I have been a bead collector for nearly forty years and one of the most desirable to me and most collectors are the German marbles that were finished off as beads for trade in Africa and Asia.

My question do any of you marble collectors have any marble beads in your collections? If so I would truly like to see images of what you have.

I have included two images of some of the as made beads for those that have never seen them.

All my best ......... Danny

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Marble beads from the African and Asian trade

I have been a bead collector for nearly forty years and one of the most desirable to me and most collectors are the German marbles that were finished off as beads for trade in Africa and Asia.

My question do any of you marble collectors have any marble beads in your collections? If so I would truly like to see images of what you have.

I have included two images of some of the as made beads for those that have never seen them.

All my best ......... Danny

Danny, Those are really nice beads. Hansel, here on this board has some of those. I'm sure there are other's on the board who have some as well. Ronnie

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Oh neat.

I had a corkscrew bead once which I didn't hang onto because I let it get dinged up and I didn't like being reminded that the damage was my fault. Wish I still had it.

I don't think it was for trade. Just mentioning it.

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The Europeans were the first who traded with South-Africa and India.

It's said the Portuquese were the first Europeans who arrived in South-Africa.

The bead trades began about 1500,the exchange was not only slaves but also for goods,such as,ivory-gold-coffe-tea and herbs.

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As I am far from an expert on this type bead if you'd like to know more about their history the best place to go is beadcollector.net and do a search on German marble beads, they have been quite a topic over the years so there is plenty of information on them.

All my best ..... Danny

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Lopacki,didn't read your post 1 very well and was answering post 6 LOL.

Thought this topic was about the early bead trades,apparently it's about the German marbles that were made in to beads.

Galen thats a nice site.

Here's a site about the early trade beads.

http://www.ezakwantu.com/Gallery%20Trade%20Beads%20Slave%20Beads%20African%20Currency.htm

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I got this in a jar of common marbles from a flea market. When I first saw it I though it was a striped transparent of some sort. Now i think it is Czech. It is 5/8" I can't tell if it was made as a bead or drilled somehow. I don't know if it is old enough to be considered a trade bead.

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I got this in a jar of common marbles from a flea market. When I first saw it I though it was a striped transparent of some sort. Now i think it is Czech. It is 5/8" I can't tell if it was made as a bead or drilled somehow. I don't know if it is old enough to be considered a trade bead.

Pretty.

That article Galen linked mentioned something called hot punching. Would you say yours has a "slightly tapered hole"?

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I have recently been given an extensive collection of trade beads. I have Venetian glass, Czech glass, and African glass beads. None of them are the German hand made looking marble beads.

Would love to see 'em!

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Steph, the hole looks to be the same all the way through the marble. If there is a taper, it is too slight to notice. The ends of the hole are smooth like they had been fire polished or something. One end is slightly indented.

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1313 Thank you for showing that wonderful strand.

For Flanco your bead is drilled, the indent is caused by pressure from the drill at the bottom of the marble when it is being drilled.

These images are of a hot punched marble, notice how the color got pushed back into the marble when pierced and on the backside its pretty much smooth.

Yes I did start this topic on German marble beads that were traded not trade beads in general, trade beads is another topic that is best investigated off of this thread.

All my best ...... Danny

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Well with my newly found expertise (cough cough lol cough) I'm going to guess "slightly indented" and smooth might mean hot punched. It just makes so much sense.

Steph, I'm willing to bet that hot punching a hole into a small sphere of malleable glass is impossible to do without grossly distorting the sphere. Not being a glass worker, someone should try to prove me wrong. Flanco's bead was probably made by fusing the two halves over a mandrel.

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Lopacki,didn't read your post 1 very well and was answering post 6 LOL.

Thought this topic was about the early bead trades,apparently it's about the German marbles that were made in to beads.

Galen thats a nice site.

Here's a site about the early trade beads.

http://www.ezakwantu.com/Gallery%20Trade%20Beads%20Slave%20Beads%20African%20Currency.htm

wow, great site Winnie. Best I've seen on the subject. Any idea where Gallery Ezakwantu is located?

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