10 Small Huron Indian Cobalt Blue Glass Trade Beads Good Patina Color

Trading Beads The first European explorers and colonists gave Native Americans glass and ceramic beads as gifts and used beads for trade with them. The Indians had made bone, shell, and stone beads long before the Europeans arrived in North America, and continued to do so. However, European glass beads, mostly from Venice, some from Holland and, later, from Poland and Czechoslovakia, became popular and sought after by the Indians. The most famous story in American history involving trade beads isn't true. Peter Minuit and his Dutch settlers did not purchase Manhattan Island in 1625 for $24 in beads. As Peter Francis, Jr. demonstrates in a 1986 prize-winning article, "The Beads That Did Not Buy Manhattan Island," the story dates from the nineteenth century and has no historical basis in fact. The availability of glass beads increased, their cost decreased, and they became more widely used by Indians throughout North America. Ceramic beads declined in popularity as glass bead manufacturers came to dominate the market because of their variety of color, price, and supply. At first, glass beads supplemented those made from natural materials, but, in time, glass beads almost completely replaced Indian-made ones. Every buyer gets 10 original Indian trade beads. The material is Venetian glass. These beads sure show their age! Good color and patina. From my grandfather's estate. Original period item. The pictures show the variety of beads being sold, your beads may slightly vary from the ones pictured. I combine shipping on all purchases made within 7 days of each other. 
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