Antique European Fancy Beads

Although glassmaking was recorded in Venetian monasteries in 882, the foundations of the great glass industry were established primarily from 1200 to 1400. The production and making of beads has always been important to the Venetian glass industry. Bead making can be traced from early 1300. From the Renaissance until the Industrial Revolution glass beads occupied an important place in European adornment. The most famous and certainly the finest of these have been made in Venice.

Unlike trade beads Fancy Beads are made for the European market. You may notice that many of the beads contain gold. This is not an ‘effect’ it is actual gold. The making of these beads was a very complicated process and the brilliance of the gold in the beads was often destroyed by the heat of the furnaces. Because this process was so touch and go, it was named ‘Aventura’ i.e. an adventure as the outcome was always a risk. Nowadays it is called aventurine but this does not refer in any way to the well known semi precious stone.

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