Beautiful in its simplicity these earrings feature antique hand faceted Russian blue trade beads made in the 1800's. Sterling silver accents. Earrings on sterling silver ear wires 1 1/2 inches long, double dangle, 1 inch single dangle.



Antique Trade Beads:

Beads have been used as a buying commodity for centuries throughout the world. Beads were first brought to Alaska by Russian traders during the early 1800's. Beads found their way to the upper Yukon River region in the later part of the 1800's through the Hudson Company and American fur traders as well as gold miners, during the 40 Mile and Klondike gold rushes. The local Han and Gwich'in natives, along the upper Yukon, highly prized trade beads and acquired them from traders and miners as payment for meat, furs and guiding. Treasure a piece of wearable history!

A little more information about faceted beads:

Antique faceted beads are among some of the most beautiful antique beads, the time and care that was taken on each bead is phenomenal. Most faceted beads have anywhere between 7 and 30 facets.
The faceted beads were shaped into six-, seven-, or eight-sided tube before being drawn. After the tubes were cut to bead size, the ends of the ridge between the adjacent sides were ground down by hand. The result is a usually a high quality bead with eighteen, twenty-one, or twenty-four facets or more. Some deviations resulted in more or less facets, the beads with fewer facets were of less value.

- Please note due to the auto shipping calculator if you wish to purchase multiples of an item or combine with other items from my shop your shipping will probably be calculated incorrectly if shipping to a US address. I can either refund you the extra or you can contact me and we will create a custom order so the shipping is correct. This glitch happens as a result of offering international shipping - thank you for visiting and please be assured I will not charge you exorbitant shipping costs.