Collection Rare Antique Kiffa African Powder Glass Trade Beads Mauritania Africa

Description: This is a set of rare antique polychrome Kiffa beads which were collected from Mauritania, Africa. Three of these antique Kiffa beads are very rare examples of a lesser used technique in which the women would use an antique European glass bead which had been traded into Africa to apply their powder glass designs onto and then fire. Great overall rustic tribally made and used condition with assorted wear including the smallest cylinder shaped bead is missing some of the glass decoration on one bead end, the disc eye bead with the red coloration does have a pit next to the perforation on one bead end and the center bead has a small chip on one bead end on the backside of the bead. The largest Kiffa decorated center bead measures 12.80mm long by 6.83mm wide and the larger green eye bead measures 5.59mm long by 8.06mm wide, smallest Kiffa round green eye bead measures 3.73mm long by 4.95mm wide and the round yellow Kiffa bead measures 5.59mm long by 7.30mm wide. Be sure to review these measurements and use a caliper to understand bead size before buying. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia...."Kiffa beads are rare powder glass beads named after the Mauritanian city of Kiffa where French ethnologist R. Mauny documented them first in 1949. Kiffa beads represent one of the highest levels of artistic skill and ingenuity in beadmaking, being manufactured with the simplest materials and tools available - pulverized European Glass beads or fragments of them, bottle glass, pottery shards, tin cans, twigs, steel needles some gum arabic, and open fires. The term Kiffa bead, named after the one of the old bead making centers of Kiffa in Mauritania, was coined by bead collectors during the 1980s.According to Peter Francis, Jr., the making of powder glass beads in West Africa may date back a few hundred years, and to possibly 1200 CE in Mauritania. Maure powder glass beads are believed to copy older, Islamic beads, of the type made in Fustat and elsewhere. Although the making of Mauritanian powder glass beads appears to be an ancient tradition, no archaeological evidence to establish their age has been found to date."I combine shipping on multiple buys so please be sure to stop by my ebay store Mountainamma's Marketplace where I have thousands of amazing items to browse through. Buyers of multiple items message me before check out for help combining shipping fees or use the request invoice button in the shopping cart.

Price: 352 USD

Location: Williams, Oregon

End Time: 2025-01-08T20:47:28.000Z

Shipping Cost: 16.75 USD