| Original Message: Islamic bead: authentic or repro. Help plse! |
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My partner surprised me a couple of years ago with this bead from a bead store in NYC. He paid a lot of money for it. –after some digging I might find the name of the store -
It is a nice bead, but is it authentic or a repro…. I have not been handling Islamic beads, so I get stuck with some questions, even after going through BCN archives and reading other sources. - Dimensions: length 20mm , diameter 25mm - Looks like a wound melon – if that makes any sense. Haven’t seen many explicit melons like this one - 1 hole is bigger than the other: bigger 6mm, smaller 4mm – does that fit in with Islamic beads?, or is there no ‘rule’ - in the smaller hole a tiny bit (a few mm long) of crusty chalky white residue (see picture)– the rest is very clean as is the outside. Looks like it has been washed/cleaned or is it just new? - the black surface is rather smooth with a few chips and it shines a bit less than on the picture. It has a similar texture as fig 142 on p 73 in A. Panini’s book (Middle Eastern and Venetian glassbeads, 2007 Skira ed) - the trail decoration is yellow. - Is it the right yellow? - The yellow trail has not ‘fused’ with the black base but is more like icing on a cake, hence it has broken off in some parts. Most I have seen are much more fused. - Would it be from Mali region? What other questions does one have to ask when evaluating such bead? Your comments are very welcome. – Hopefully no one will have to say ‘copy’. But I can take it…. snif Thank you! All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
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