Fulani old glass beads necklace, Mali

A Fulani strand of beads, with Czech molded glass beads (drop shape and triangular shape), and agate big quadrangular bead from Idar Oberstein and four Mauritanian phenolic resin amber beads.

It was collected in Mali in the ’70s.

From the first half of the 20th century.

The press-molded beads are called “African trade beads”, “African wedding beads” or “Mali wedding beads”. They were originally made in the Czech Republic and eventually made their way to Africa where the Europeans traded them like currency with their African trade partners in the 1950s and started being exported from Africa to the US and Europe in the 1980s. Today they continue to be worn throughout West Africa–Fulani women of Mali are traditionally given a strand of these on their wedding day.

They are now temporary strung with nylon thread.

The necklace measures 74 cm (29,13 in).

Each glass bead is about 25 mm long.

Quadrangular agate is 26 mm.

Mauritanian resin beads are 43 mm long (diagonal)

Weight: 556 gr.

SOLD