Showing the country of origin stamp that makes me think this piece is before 1920, after which date "Made In China" was required. A paper label could have been applied to fulfill this requirement, but the misspelling "CMINA" is what makes me think the piece is from an earlier decade, when workshops were just getting used to the idea of having to apply country of origin stamps to export items.

These canisters with large glass bead finials were apparently pretty popular export items, as they show up occasionally on eBay, more often with a mass-produced stamped pattern rather than the landscape scenes on this one.

As to Japanese presence in the Boshan workshops, Peter Francis in his book Asia's Maritime Bead Trade has this to say:

The most substantial intrusion of the Chinese Glass industry was by the Japanese, apparently long before they invaded the Middle Kingdom. Forsyth (1912,386) said:
"Recently a large manufactory for the making of glass has been erected in Poshan. It is of foreign construction and under foreign management."
The only foreign glass works in Boshan (Jinanfu) a decade later was the "Shantong Glass Factory" owned by Japanese (Woodhead 1922, 773). Woodhead (1922, 773-74) listed twenty glass factories of different sorts, five of them owned by Japanese, another one scheduled to open, and two that could be for either glass or porcelain. Five years later he (Woodhead, 1927, 187-89) listed thirty-two glass factories, one of the "Sino-British," five Japanese, and three Japanese-owned glass or porcelain factories. Two in Boshan (Jinanfu) were Japanese, though neither was then named "Shantong Glass Factory."

Peter's book can be searched online via Google Books.

Thoughts, anyone?

So far, from my experience, I believe this type of bead has only been found in Yunnan, China. Joe L. and I have sourced them there in our travels. But I do not know when and where it was made.

Just Fred

Collected from the Akha by Duangporn & Steve when they first began Hands of the Hills.

Re the oval glass bead:

This is a gorgeous bead, decorated with the less-common molded flowers that imitate Venetian work of this period. It's also unusual in having a conventional formal arrangement, as opposed to the usually random scattering of cane elements seen more often.

Jamey

This is why I was struck by the blue flower murrine in the canister finial bead. They have tiny green centers.

...this bead posted a few years ago: http://beadcollector.net/cgi-bin/anyboard.cgi?fvp=/openforum/&cmd=get&cG=9333339313&zu=3933333931&v=2&gV=0&p=

Great quote from Billy Steinberg, eh?

The murrine look as if they were applied by rolling the bead in a piled-up row of them and then kind of mashing everything smooth?

If Billy Steinberg reads this, would you please consider posting pictures of the similar beads you purchased from Joe Loux? I'd LOVE to see them. Thank you!

i had a whole string of these- the blue mille murrini look similar to yours? but messier-

That was a quote from Billy Steinburg. Sadly, I have no such lovely and rare beads, but I LOVE to read about them. If you search for my posts you'll find most of the beads I own.

This is my most significant collection.

These are the beads that I own that are like the one in this link. I bought them from Joe Loux who got them in China.

http://beadcollector.net/cgi-bin/anyboard.cgi?fvp=/openforum/&cmd=get&cG=9333339313&zu=3933333931&v=2&gV=0&p=

How old do you think they are?

The large bead is about the size of a 50 cent piece. The small ones are smaller than dimes. I don't know how old they are. My guess, and it's only a guess, is early 1900's or late 1800's.

Thank you so much for posting pictures of your beads. They are lovely!

A large bead, measures about 28mm with a big 7mm hole (hard to measure exactly because of the rivet cap).

I posted it to the Asian Art Forums inquiring what the characters in the landscape scenes said, and was informed that they likely represent the Summer Palace in Beijing

万寿山, Wanshou shan (Longevity Hill)
昆明湖, Kunming hu (Kunming Lake)

And another AAF poster provided a link to another brass canister, altho the link mistakenly refers to the blue lining as "ceramic" rather than enamel.

I take back the speculation about Mandarin hat button use - that's ridiculous. The brass craftsmanship is pretty low, with sloppy soldering.
I guess what made me think the finial started out as something else is the mount. It's copper, not brass like the box, and looks as if someone took two stamped copper disks, cut out the centers, pressed them into bowl shapes, and sloppily soldered them together. They retain stamped images - swallow wings and tail, plum blossom branch, leaves, characters.
Messed-up leftovers from stamping furniture fittings, or what?

Figured my other canister needed a little friend.

discussed at BCN in 2006 when i mentioned a researcher who did a paper for the British museum on them-

...that the discussion developed a sideline about whether these topknots were referred to as "buttons" because the word "bead" had low-class connotations. Tsk!

Just a quick flyover of Google images revealed that little silk buttons, as well as decorative knots, were used on everyday hats. So this finial-type decoration for court hats could be viewed simply as an extension of the concept of the everyday hat button - court hats featuring a big, fancy "button" composed of a bead and metal work.

I wish we could all dress so comfortably in tailored gowns, capes, and long counterweighted necklaces. Hmmmm.... [eyes attic boxes overflowing with beads]

Two recent examples (the first is listed as antique) currently for sale on eBay and by a bead seller:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1-Vintage-Purple-Millefiori-Chinese-Peking-Glass-Trade-BEADs-06-/171672612520?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27f87c2ea8

http://www.earthlyadornments.com/chinese-cobalt-blue-peking-glass-bead-with-millefiore-eye-b11-bl-2113.html

Here's a larger image of Earthly Adornment's modern millefiori Chinese glass beads:

Let's try this again:

They resemble the rolled-up starburst/galaxy murrine, don't they?

The opaque lapis blue color seems unusual too.

I feel that the cookie-cutter flower pattern is the one constant shown in examples by Billy, JRJ, Stephany, and Cris which feels contemporary to me.

Is it possible that all of these are fairly recent ( say the last ten to twenty years) and Billy's beads were acid etched?

Just Fred

Fred,

I don't think they are recent.

Billy

Billy's, Chris's and Lee's (the one that Jamey commented on) look very different and more complex canes to me. The others have much simpler canes and the beads appear to have been made recently.
W.

Please find attached herewith 2 images that appears as Chinese millefiori bead from 1930+/- in accordance to Jamey.

Lee

I agree that this green bead appears to be an old one.

Just Fred

Note the little green dot in the middle of the Boshan murrine, similar to the little red or green or yellow dots in the middle of the "rolled up" starburst/galaxy murrine.

Two completely different techniques, as we have all learned from Italian millefiore.

We learn more from disagreement than from agreement.

Just Fred