Antique Colorful Diamond Kiffa African Powder Glass Turtle Eye Bead, Mauritania

Description: This is a very rare antique multi-colored Kiffa turtle eye bead which comes from Mauritania, Africa. This hard to find rare antique Kiffa bead is in pretty good overall condition but does have a chip and resulting glass loss to one bead end on the back of the bead which is shown in the third and sixth picture. Very highly desirable this Kiffa bead measures 14.56mm long by 10.51mm 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 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 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 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 orders so please check out my ebay store Mountainamma's Marketplace where I have thousands of items to browse from Africa and beyond. For buyers of multiple items please message me before you buy for help combining shipping fees.

Price: 63.75 USD

Location: Williams, Oregon

End Time: 2024-03-20T18:49:54.000Z

Shipping Cost: 9.5 USD