Faience beads

Hi,

I have a couple of questions, both possibly rather ingenuous, on
ancient Egyptian faience beads.
1. Where can genuine ancient Egyptian faience beads be bought.
2. There is quite a bit of jewelry with this type of bead available on
the internet (e.g. eBay). Do you think they contain the real thing?

Thanks

Kathy N-V wrote:

On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 16:06:23 -0400, Topkapi wrote
(in message ) :

Hi,

I have a couple of questions, both possibly rather ingenuous, on
ancient Egyptian faience beads.
1. Where can genuine ancient Egyptian faience beads be bought.

Getting authenticated beads could be a real challenge. Under the
laws of Egyptian antiquities, the government of Egypt would have to
approve of the export of any ancient artifact in advance. The other
avenue to getting authentic ancient beads would be to get some that
were exported decades ago, before the laws went into effect.

The pretty cats, sphinxes and eyes of Horus that you can find for a
small sum of money are almost certainly _not_ authentic. Faience
beads were made by the millions, but not necessarily in those shapes.
By far the most common shape was a shortened tube bead, almost a
donut shape that was made my slicing a round cane.

2. There is quite a bit of jewelry with this type of bead available on
the internet (e.g. eBay). Do you think they contain the real thing?

Probably not, if it's at all affordable. It's one of those know your
seller kinds of things, and your seller could be unknowing of any
fakery, too. Faience made in current times and ancient Faience are
virtually identical looking - especially since modern Faience is made
using ancient techniques.

Kathy N-V

I can't answer OP's question, but, coincidentally, there's an
interesting article in the Spring 2000 issue of Ornament: "Comparisons
of Ancient Faience Ornaments" by Robert K. Liu, one of the editors.


Cheers,
Turtlelover

I have a couple of questions, both possibly rather ingenuous, on
ancient Egyptian faience beads.
1. Where can genuine ancient Egyptian faience beads be bought.
2. There is quite a bit of jewelry with this type of bead available on
the internet (e.g. eBay). Do you think they contain the real thing?

Thanks

I have two strands of GENUINE- they were purchased from a MUSEUM that was
"thinning" out their collection.
Most of the stuff you get today - even in Egypt is "fake"
you'd have to be an expert to know how to tell the difference - and no way to
do so online -say in an auction.

basically - if you like it, it looks good, and you want it - buy it... but
don't put a lot of faith in the genuine quality unless you really trust the
source (i.e. a museum...)
Even the stuff sold in "archaeology" magazines - a lot of it is fake...

I wrote a research article about Egytian Faience years ago -- I should find it
.... and post it on my website....

Cheryl
DRAGON BEADS
Flameworked beads and glass
http://www.dragonbeads.com/

Here is a site that has good pictures of faience beads and information about
them.
Roxan
http://www.ancienttouch.com/faience.htm

"Topkapi" wrote in message
om...
Hi,

I have a couple of questions, both possibly rather ingenuous, on
ancient Egyptian faience beads.
1. Where can genuine ancient Egyptian faience beads be bought.
2. There is quite a bit of jewelry with this type of bead available on
the internet (e.g. eBay). Do you think they contain the real thing?

Thanks