Millefiori Trade Beads

Beads used in the African trade, the Russian fur trade and among Native American Indians for currency during the 1800s through the mid 1900s. Millefiori beads get their name from two Italian words, meaning thousand and Fiori meaning flowers. Millefiori style Murano glass beads are made from handmade glass canes, each containing an individual pattern of various designs and colours, from stars, to circles and flowers.

This necklace is a mix of Venetian glass beads dating from the 1800’s. Venice was the centre of European glass bead making from the sixteenth century where huge quantities were made and shipped to Africa and north America for trade.  The central lapis blue bead on this necklace is a six-layer chevron, the aristocrat of beads.