Venetian "Trade Beads"

Beads primarily made by Muranos and Venetians.Muranese beadmakes entered the bead business in the second half o the 15th Century.

Millefiori Beads, Mosaic Beads, African Trade Beads, Slave beads, Powder Glass Beads, Murano Beads, Venetian Beads. Italians have been making beads for centuries.
European explorers and traders arriving in West Africa in the early fifteenth century noted an abundance of gold jewelry, including beaded necklaces and bracelets. Glass beads were bartered by Africans for incense, ivory, tortoiseshell, horn, oils, timber, iron, and other metals. Between the 1500s and 1867, it’s estimated that fifteen million slaves were shipped from Africa to the Americas for the exchange of European glass beads.