Antique Rare Kiffa Powder Glass Work On European Bead Mauritania, African Trade

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This is a rare antique example of polychrome Kiffa powder glass decoration work done on an antique European glass bead which comes from Mauritania, Africa. This hard to find rare antique bead is in great condition with some surface wear. Very highly desirable this antique Kiffa decorated European bead measures 6.85mm long by 9.74mm wide and would be excellent for jewelry making or adding to your antique African trade bead collection.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 bead making, 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 centres 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 read more