1910.4.22

Collection type

Object

Description

Necklet of coloured trade beads

Long description

Sections of single threaded large orange, white, dark blue beads and sections numerously strung small orange beads make up this neck ornament [KJ 28/04/2014]

Geographical reference

Sudan, Republic of

Africa > Northern Africa > Sudan, Republic of

[Eastern Sudan]

Person

Field collector Henry Cornwallis Eliot

PRM source Henry Cornwallis Eliot

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1910

Date collected

By 1910

Acquisition information

Donated: 1910

Materials and processes

Material Glass, Material Bead

Dimensions

Length: max 420 mm doubled

Object numbers

Accession number: 1910.4.22

Research and responses

The brown and white striped beads and moulded red beads are identical to those found on necklet 1910.4.20-21; the brown beads also appear in a string around the neck of harp 1908.26.7, bought from a Nuba of Southern Kordofan. The red beads are spherical, with a broad flat section running around their circumference that is probably a mould line. This type of bead also appears in Arkell's collection of trade bead sample cards (see 1971.15.195, 1971.15.196 and 1971.15.257; the cards were purchased in Omdurman and El Fasher, and the beads shown on them were made in Jablonec nad Nisou in the Czech Republic. These beads are probably made of glass paste, not plastic, using the process known as 'prosser-moulding', a technique that moulds a milk-paste under high pressure then fires it, giving the appearance of glass or porcelein, but actually being a synthetic material. These types of beads were made in France, Germany and the Czech Republic (see Picard, R and J. 1995. 'Prosser Beads: The French Connection', Ornament 19.2, pp 68-71 [MoB 27/4/2001 and RTS 15/7/2005].

Search terms: Ornament, Bead, Trade, Neck Ornament