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African Trade Beads

Their 10,000 Year History

Issa Traore

Description

This beautiful book documents early-style beads made of cowrie shells, semi-precious stones and clay. The book then shows in splendid detail hundreds of beads made of glass and other human-made materials that have been made by Europeans and Africans and traded for the last 600 years in Central and East Africa.

Each bead is identified as to its origin and manufacture and approximate date. Covering shells, "Konon" (glass beads) and some contemporary beads, African Trade Beads' heart is Konon or Venetian trade beads that used to be easily found in his home country but are now scarce.

Each example is from the author's own collection and was obtained from rural Mali -– but they originated in many African countries and hundreds of years of trade brought them in wide ranges and mixtures, instead of their original uniformity.