Similar beads with highly tapered holes, especially the red/white/black versions, appear on trade bead strands now & then. Some are large, 20 mm or more, some are small. The conical holes seem to point in the direction of tong-molded beads from Bohemia.
I agree that the colors look atypical for Venetian, and the white in particular seems to be a greasy grey upon closer inspection. The red/white/black pattern appears to match some of the larger, irregular aja beads that are a bit more common than the bicones.
These pictures are beads from my collection - bicones, and the somewhat color-matching aja (three of them - the fourth is a more conventional-looking striped one).
I'm tempted to think that the folded bicones were an experiment by the Czech, using some of the same glass that was being drawn into cane for beads that were ultimately flattened into aja. We know the Czech / Bohemians made a lot of drawn beads, but were not producing a lot of fancy lampwork. So is it possible the folded pad bicone beads were an attempt to make some fancier, individual beads?
There are also people who think these were made in India at about the same time as the hey-days of Venetian and Czech beads.
Will have to review Pete Francis's stuff on drawn cane from India - for some reason, your mention of India resonated with something rattling around in my subconscious.
The coincidence of the stripe pattern with the aja style beads is intriguing...
i previously believed these may be Venetian in origin, however, if the holes are really conical rather than of even diameter that suggests furnace-wound.
could they be from the Hebron/Fustat/Kano beadmakers or even the heyday of Bida? i also often wondered about the twisted-looking grey ones with a clear glass base...
the Indian drawn cane ones are different. will try to illustrate when i get hold of mine this weekend.
December 2021
Well, I have to take exception to the proposition that "people" have suggested an Indian origin for these beads.
This is an original idea proposed by me—and not discussed by anyone else, ever, as far as I know.
And I have NOT suggested they date from the same times as Venetian and Czech beads. It is my supposition that these beads may be older than many European beads—but particularly have no relation to Czech molded-glass beadmalking (and its time).
I worked out the general manufacture of these beads in the early 1980s. I have not had cause to change my mind nor alter my suppositions since that time.
They are spirally-rolled rolled-pad beads. This sort of construction has no parallels among Venetian, Czech, nor any modern European glass beads. The style of beadmaking harkens back to antiquity. And is just the sort of thing that might have been practiced in India.
This remains my best guess.
Jamey
