The Frost Trade Bead Collection Gallery
Larger Beads
Luster Beads
The beads at the top of this card are called luster beads, as well as Ceylon pearls and pearlized Prosser beads. Translucent glass beads were passed through a heated chamber containing metallic vapors that settled on the surface of the beads.
A similar process, called irising, produced a satiny sheen on beads' surfaces. Beads were dipped in a lacquer bath that also contained tiny metal particles. The lacquer was burned off in a kiln, and the metal coating remained.
Many of the beads in the three colums at the top of the card were used in Native American objects in the ISM Anthropology Collection, especially by Plains tribes. The last five beads in each of the bottom two rows are among the types that Stephen A. Frost & Son exported to Africa.Collection of the Illinois State Museum
Photographed by Gary Andrashko, ISM
ISM Accession #: 1941-0083
