A Necklace in Black and Red of Lucite, Murano Glass, and Obsidian CRBM 10004
This 27" is made of vintage lucite beads in showy black-and-red diamond shapes. The beads separating these lucite beads are vintage Murano glass, as are the tiny seed beads. The barrel-shaped black beads are black obsidian.
The diamond-shaped beads are 30x25x8 mm; the black pebble-shaped Murano beads are 10*6 mm the barrel-shaped obsidian beads are 14*10 mm, and the seed beads are 3 mm. The weight of the necklace is 2.5 oz.
About Murano Glass:
The Venetian island of Murano has been the home of the fabled Venetian glassmakers since the 13th century. The glassmaker’s guild closely guarded the secrets of the trade, and for centuries, Murano dominated the European glass market. Henry VIII was among the many august collectors of Murano glass, which was highly popular with European nobility. Peaking in the 16th century, the dominance of Murano glassmakers gradually declined giving way to new technologies developed in England, Bohemia, and Prussia. After Napoleon’s conquest of Venice at the end of the 18th century, Venetian glassmaking became unprofitable, and the glass-making trade went into a sharp decline, with few remaining glassmakers making mostly beads. By the end of the 19th century, there was a strong effort to revive the ancient trade in Murano, and today local artisans keep the secrets of the ancient trade alive.
