Yellow Trail Decorated Trade Beads

Great strand of really neat pale yellow trade beads from the middle of the 19th century.  These glass beads were made in Venice and traded throughout West Africa.  These particular beads are quite hard to find, with a beautiful delicate green lattachino glass design.  Indeed, these beads came out of the estate of a prominent Washington DC bead collector.

Beads of this vintage and style are notoriously delicate, and these are no exception.  Several of the beads show fairly extensive wear and three beads are completely broken towards the back of the string.  Others show minor chips, largely at the edges.  Additionally, as you can see in the close up, the pink glass flower design appears to have preferentially worn away on most of the beads.  

The strand measures 22 inches long.  The rectangular beads measure 10 mm in diameter by 18 mm in length.