bead

About 1615, the Venetians began to produce lamp beads or lamp-wound beads. After they rediscovered the process of drawing canes, they were able to make unperforated canes of glass in order to create unique wound beads on iron wires, using a lamp that provided a small flame as the source of heat. Women crafted the lamp beads in their homes or in small shops, employing the various canes to decorate the beads. Each was individually fashioned and hand-wound, unlike drawn beads, which were all cut from the same cane and had an identical pattern. The makers of lamp beads established their own guild, the supialume, in 1647. It was distinct from the paternostreri, who crafted the larger, drawn beads, and the margariteri, who created the smaller, drawn seed beads. These hand-wound lamp beads were the first beads to be considered “fancy,” a term that would become well known from the 19th century to today. The 19th century was the greatest period for the production for lamp beads, and many varieties were distributed by way of sample cards. The example shown here is combed. Its colored trails were laid around the matrix of the bead, and a tool was used to drag the hot trails into one another, creating a feathered pattern. Its ellipsoid shape was the most common form. Although this type of bead was still popular at the end of the 19th century, its production seems to have ended about 1939.

Italy, Venice

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