You receive: - 0.4 ounces - approx. 360 - richly pearlescent and colorful core mix of vintage-to-antique Italian glass seed beads, that remind me of the unique colors of spumoni ice cream! You will also find a rare scattering of opalized jade green seed beads, along with several other colors, and some extremely short bugle beads.
They possess a smooth - and often glossy - surface and very small, 0.5 - 1.0mm (approx.), beading holes. These beautiful old beads would be perfect for use in traditional beaded regalia and reenactment beadwork!

Please see dime and cm ruler in second photo for visual sizing.

RARE. My supply of these beautiful seed beads is beginning to dwindle and my trusted supplier is permanently sold out of them. Possessing fabulous, oxidized and opalized colors that simply can't be duplicated, these are the most desirable, most limited, and most collectible vintage-to-antique seed beads still available today.
Paper-packed since 2015!

History :
These are authentic, limited, vintage-to-antique beads, never used, made in Italy, about 100 years ago.
Possessing an incredibly rich, and varied vintage color palette, these are truly collectible beads, the type that you purchase now to be savored when they are unavailable later, the seed bead that you would use in a "specialty" piece, when choosing to avoid more conventional, easy to obtain, "modern" seed beads.

These beads were made by the Societa Veneziana Conterie, a consortium of 16 independent Venetian bead makers that joined together from 1898-1992 and created glass products, in a huge brick factory on the island of Murano, Italy.

The beads were hugely popular world-wide, especially in the 1920's and 30's, yet the Societa became comfortable after years of prosperity and failed to prepare for the inevitable change in tastes of today's consumer and the rising costs of energy, transportation and labor.

They shut down in 1992, selling 7 tons of antique bead inventory.

I have had the huge privilege of locating and purchasing a small cache of these beads, which EthnicBeadShop is making available to you for a limited time. Enjoy!

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