56 Schaufelförmige Behelfe zum Perlenzählen. - Firma Ilse 
Kratzmann, Lampenperlenfabrikation, Enns (Oberöster 
reich) 
56 Shovel-shaped devices for counting beads. - Ilse Kratz 
mann Company, lamp bead factory, Enns (Upper Austria) 
In the bottom row, the sizes of the beads are shown that are those usually expected of canes 
The finishedmolten beads... were then taken to the beadsievingplace. Sieving was done with 
shaking mach Ines that were equlpped with 4 to 5 metal sieves with holes (size ca. 50 x 30 cm) to 
separate the individual beads. The sieves were made of thin galvanized sheet iron. Betöre we 
made the sieves in our workshop ourselves, we got them from the famous sieve maker, Josef 
Stecker, from Hochstadt in the Riesengebirge. Stecker was a Czech and made his sieves almost 
exclusively for all the various requirements of the Gablonz industry. The man had the most primi 
tive equipment possible for making these metal sieves. From a strong leaf spring there hung a 
dye which he set into ajiggling motion so that the dye feil upon the metal several times a second. 
He pushed the metal sheet back and forth with his hand so skillfully that he finished one metal 
sieve in about 15 to 20 minutes. How he managed to cut out the holes of the sieve so that they 
were almost exactly evenly spaced is a puzzle to me"(Breit 1987-90, pp. 69, 70). 
If we try to pursue the numbering Systems for sizes of beads chronologically, we find the 
oldest examples of Bohemian provenance among the Gablonz beads of the Biedermeier 
period. I know of no comparable, early concordances of Venetian beads. The printed 
sources available to me and the sample books from Barbaria and Barbini from the 
beginning of the 19th Century (Technical Museum Vienna, inv. TH 32865, 32744) do 
contain consecutive numbers for the corresponding samples, but no number-size 
equivilent. Bussolin and Zanetti only mention sieves that sort the beads according to size 
(Bussolin 1847, p. 23; Zanetti 1874, p. 131). Only under Keess was I able to find a reference 
to Venetian blown beads “in 15 different numbers” (Keess 2/1823, p. 904). 
Zanetti classifies according to the quality of the beads: “fine” {fine), “mezzo fine” (medium 
fine), “piombo”(lead), Vefro”(glass), “nero”(black), according to size: “collane, cannettine, 
cannette da 3, 3 V?, 4, 5, e da '/i.”The French called the collane “charlottes” or “rocailles” 
depending on their size (Zanetti 1874, p. 133). 
In contrast to these vague specifications, the sizes of Bohemian Biedermeier beads are 
more exactly defined. The solid and blown beads on a chart from Ferdinand Unger in 
Liebenau (ills. 43, 44, pp. 82, 83) are labeled in so-called graduated sizes from 4/0 to 24. 
These graduated sizes or their fractions were normally measured with the “French line” (or 
Parisian Line”): 1 foot = 12inches = 144 lines, e.g. 1 inch = 12lines. The millimeter 
equivalent for the lines differed from country to country: 1 Parisian line = 2.2558 mm, 
99