TRADE BEADS

Trade Beads have been one of my passions for 40 years and over time more and more people have become aware of them.  I’ve decided to post a collection of information that I’ve compounded to clear up or confuse the trade bead issue.  They have been a vital part of our history that not many people know about. Trade beads have been casually commented upon or rarely taught about, so I’m going to use this space as a deposit for information that I’ve found.  There are serious collectors out there!

RUSSIAN BLUES

“All of the exploring, hunting and trading that were a part of the Fur Trade were accompanied by a variety of trade beads.  But it is only the Russian trade bead that memorializes the association and has inherited the romantic aura of the dangerous and lucrative enterprise.” (Elizabeth Harris, bead expert, Vol. 5, Russian Blues)

“Russian Blue” trade beads are translucent and opaque light to dark faceted glass.  They range in size from 3mm to 20mm. In transparent glass the colors available were clear, milky white, amber, green, blue, amethyst and a rosy red. Various shades of blue trade beads were by far the most common, with a deep ultramarine the shade most sought after by collectors.  In opaque glass there is white, a milky light blue, turquoise and black, actually a saturated purple.  These were made from glass canes, cut to size and hand faceted, all very desirable trade beads.

“We accept now that the blue trade beads probably originated in Bohemia (Czechoslovakia) and first made their appearance in Russian America in the late 1700’s.  The only mystery is how the Russians obtained them.  The Bohemians sent wagon trains of their glassware all over Europe including Russia.  The Russian American Fur Company may have bought the beads from such a train and shipped them to the colony.  There is also a story of them being stocked in the European storehouses in Canton, China and shipped to the Russian colony from there.  The beads may also have been obtained from the Hudson’s Bay Co.  There is evidence that they had them to trade in Canada and the Great Lakes region.  John Jacob Astor, of the American Fur Co. reputedly sold beads to the Russians.  Whatever the route, trade beads arrived in the Pacific Northwest in considerable quantity.”
(E. Harris)