I wish I knew more about these beads; I wish there was more written about them, but the information seems very sparse and contradictory. For instance, some writers see the Japanese occupation as being the high point of production; most recently I read that in fact a lot of factories closed down at that time. One of the problems is that Boshan produced a lot of the ordinary household glass for North China and beads were always a sideline.

What I find attractive about the earlier beads is that they are often quite rough and spontaneous in their feel - a sort of Abstract Expressionist energy about them, that's very different from the rest of Qing and Republic-era glass.

Thanks for showing those lovely examples, Fred.

W.