Featured Antique Jatim Beads

Been a while since I posted, but still collecting antiques. One of my fascinations these last couple years has been ancient beads. I recently purchased this collection of Jatim beads, but I am unsure whether they are modern reproductions or truly old. The micro-mosaic style seems older than Victorian era venetian beads I have, higher quality than modern replicas I've viewed online, and there seems to be genuine wear and ageing (pitting, patina), but I imagine these can be replicated. I figure, worse case scenario, I paid 'replica' price for replicas. I'd love to get your thoughts!

(edit: I strung the beads on the cord, in order to try to figure out how I may want to configure them on a necklace. I purchased them in several lots, from the same seller, who described them as 'antique' but seemed unsure of their exact age. I can remove them from the string, if you need pictures of the holes)

 

If I recall, I believe Any Jewelry collects these? But I don't know how to @ them.

 

@Any Jewelry ............ simple , eh!

 

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were you the one? sorry, it's been like 2 years lol (I've been meaning to post more on this forum, but my life's been crazy)

 

that's ok....we like crazy.....but we missed you as well !!!!!!
& I tagged AJ for you !

 

I really need to post more on this board. Just looking at other people's posts and seeing all the lovely antiques, made me realize how much I miss being here!!

 

Some truly beautiful Jatim beads, great find. They are recent imo, but certainly have value.
I have found that most recent Jatims have a rough feel, whereas the oldies are smooth and can even be shiny.

A beautiful antique Jatim bird bead, you can see the shiny surface:


http://beadcollector.net/cgi-bin/an...d=iYz&aK=64610&iZz=64610&gV=0&kQz=&aO=1&iWz=0

Jatim is short for 'Jawa Timur', which means East Java. The original Jatim beads were mostly made during the Majapahit period, 1293-ca 1500.
Majapahit was an East Javanese colonial empire which in its heyday stretched from Java to southern Vietnam and from south Thailand to West Papua. Its capital Trowulan was near the present day city of Malang. It was a thalassocracy, which means the seas were essential to the power of the empire, and most colonized lands bordered the sea or were islands. It traded with other Asian countries and with Pacific Islands. Evidence of Majapahit trade has also been found in East Africa, just like earlier Indonesian glass beads were found in at least one Egyptian archaeological site.

The face bead is very attractive, but afaik Jatim face beads are not traditional.
Recently East Java has begun to follow the Eastern Mediterranean trend to copy antique Phoenician face beads. The only difference is that East Java is honest about the age, whereas makers from the Eastern Med intend to deceive. Of course unscrupulous sellers will sell them all as ancient or antique.

Genuine Jatim beads date from our Medieval period, so long before the Victorian period. As far as the reproduction Jatim beads go, I have seen an 18th century glass keris handle with a millefiore detail, so it is possible that millefiore glass continued to be made in East Java on a very small scale. If so, the knowledge was still there.
Venetian makers on the other hand, had to learn from scratch. They tried to copy ancient Roman and Phoenician millefiore in the 19th century and after a lot of trial and error succeeded in making beautiful examples in the 1870s. So there is a considerable age gap.