Vintage Glass Beads - What is Vintage and what is not ????

We sell German Vintage Glass Beads in our ebay store Never Too Many Beads .  We have been asked that question repeatedly. So here are some answers.

What are Vintage Beads:  Generally beads become vintage, when they are made before 1980 and after World War II - 1945. Beads made before are antique -some beads are thousands of years old- and anything new is considerd a new bead.

How can one tell the diffrence? The answer here is a bit disgrunteling: Most people can not, especially from a picture on ebay. Here is an example: I went to the Czech Republic and bought a bunch of beads in late 2003. In February 2004 I went to the big shows in Tuscon and saw some of the beads I had bought as new beads a few month before being sold by a reputable Vintage German Glass Beadsvendor -they have been around for years and advertise in all the bead magazines!!- as vintage.  I was amazed!!! I have also found over the year that some vendors will tell their customers things like : They were made from old glass with the old molds.... Old molds, yes they do have them and they use them. Old glass, I do not know, but I think that might be glass that has been in warehouses for a few years. Because when I go over to Europe to look for new and old beads I have found that most of the factories have a limited stock of glass and often mix the color to the buyers specifications...

Old Molds - New Beads? The majority of qulity glass beads come from the Czech Republic. Since the fall of communism most of the glass bead factories have become private businesses. They are interested in their bottom line. They have learned over time, that their customers are always looking for -new- designs and colors. So they have gone back and are now making some great beads that are vintage looking in color and shape... There are more unusual beads to be found than 10 years ago. Great for the beader, but also a great oppertunity for fraud since vintage beads sell for more.

Does glass change with age? Yes, it does, but it is hard to see. Translucent reds for example will turn often darker... Some of the luster will disapear. Most people can not tell, I have learned this from a glass blower. The reason for that it that the chemicals, that create the color in the glass, will react with the air and change colors very slowly over a long period of time.

How do we know, that our Vintage Glass Beads are really old??? We get our Vintage German Glass Beads from a collector in Germany. He and his wife live in the town a lot of those beads were manufactured after WWII. They collect the old jewlery and often end up having to buy all the inventory when a factory closes or one of the people that worked in the assembly dies and their family is trying to sell the estate. Often the inventory has a lot of beads/buttons and other jewlery making itmes in it. To support their collecting habit, this couple sells the items they do not want to keep. While searching through their various storage areas we have seen and bought old sample cards and some of the beads we get are still in old packaging  or have little tags in them made in West Germany - The new stuff would say made in Germany since it has been reunited in 1990.

The bottom line: There are some great beads in unusual shapes out there. So buy what you like to make the most unusual jewlery you like and take the word Vintage Glass Beads with a grain of salt - not everything that looks old is old!!!!

Here is an example of an old bead and a new bead in an old color:

The beads on the left are new - I bought them in July in the Czech Repulic.

The beads on the right are old  - I found them in Germany and they were in an old very dusty bag with a tag made in West Germany attached to a strand in the bag.