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Czech Glass New Orleans Mardi Gras Beads ca. 1920s browse these categories for related items... All Items: Estate Jewelry: Strands: Pre 1930: item # 744390 Please refer to our stock # 437 when inquiring.
Southwest Trader HC-69 BOX 4B SAPELLO, NM 87745 505-425-5630 Guest Book $ 69.- |
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| While these would be worn as a prized vintage glass necklace, this lovely Czechoslovakian glass bead necklace (its original paper label is still intact!) has a unique history: they're actually Mardi Gras beads, thrown in a New Orleans parade sometime ca. 1920 - 30. A dealer friend of mine happened to purchase this piece, and one other I will have up for sale, during a visit to New Orleans the spring before Hurricane Katrina hit, from a vintage clothing shop that had "just a few" of these on display in a glass case. She's a jewelry maker and had planned to reuse the beads, but given what happened with Hurricane Katrina later that fall, she said she didn't feel right about taking these apart and decided to sell them for what they were now -- important historical items. I did a little research and discovered that glass Mardi Gras beads date back to ca. 1920, and certainly folks who traveled there for the celebrations in the 1950s will still remember leaving the parades with handfuls of Czech glass beads, not the cheap plastic strands one finds today. This particular strand, with the design of the necklace, strikes me as "art deco" in appearance and therefore I'd place it right at the forefront of the glass bead dating. Some glass bead strands are more similar to what's thrown today: simple strands of beads, albeit glass instead of plastic. Others, like this one, were sweeter and more thought out, so they could be worn later as actual necklaces. Czech glass eventually became replaced by Japanese sources, and plastic beads appeared when a ban was placed on importing glass beads from Communist countries during the Cold War. Once banned, glass beads never made reappearance, plus they were more expensive than glass. Pre-Katrina, during the typical parade 200,000 gross of plastic Mardi Gras beads were tossed to crowds. According to Mardi Gras history, 1920 is when the crews first began throwing beaded necklaces (and other items) from floats. Mardi Gras' colors include green for faith and gold for power, both of which are featured in this particular strand, so this is actually the perfect piece containing everything one could want in terms of treasuring the memories of old Mardi Gras parades. The paper label is intact and legible, saying "Made in Czechoslovakia." Dimensions are: necklace is 15 inches long. | ||
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