sorted according to numbers (Harzer 1851, pp. 350-352). From the material presented
here, it is easy to see that although number Systems - including some with multiple zeroes -
were common, they were anything but uniform or universal. Bead guages must have
deviated from one another, too, as the different measuring results shown on the charts of
Unger for faceted beads and blown beads prove.
BUNDLES, BUNCHES, THREADS, STRINGS
The commercial units for beads (amount or weight) were determined by various criteria, but
chiefly by their size or their value. Keess gives the pound as the weight unit for two types of
Venetian beads. Sizes, too, were differentiated: “collane (margherite)” and “conterie’’('/2, 3,
4 and 5 pound units) (Keess 2/1823, p. 899). The differences in bead weights depended on
the metal content: the yellows were the heaviest (1 bunch with 10 strings = 95 grains), the
pale blues the lightest (55 grains) (Altmütter 1841, p. 92).
Real pearls were often sorted according to weight: the pearl measuring device was a thin
piece of brass with round holes “of different, gradually decreasing sizes; they were shaped
so that, for instance, one hole would pass a pearl of exacty % carat, the next one a pearl of
y 2 , then from 3 U, 1, 1 'U, 1 'h carat, etc... ’’ (Altmütter 1841, p. 73). In the crafts publications
from the historicism period there is frequent mention of pound beads.
Generally speaking, beads characterized neither by unusual size nor value were sold by
bundles (1 bündle = 2 bunches, 1 bunch = 12 strings, 1 string = 50 beads), which contained
100dozen beads (= 1200 beads) (Tayenthal 1900, p. 24; Winter 1900, p. 20; Zenkner
1983, p. 110). Depending on regional practices, expressions could also vary: we sometimes
find the terms thread and string interchanged. The bündle (= 1200 beads) was already
common as a pricing or sales unit during the Biedermeier period (Prag 1831, record, p. 58,
no. 1288). The unusual size of some beads, their value or a particular customer wish were
often the reason for a kind of stringing that differed from the usual norm of the bündle
(= 1200 beads). Schänder gives the following details for the expensive real gold beads:
“Strings of 25 or 50 beads, or the well-known 38 cm length, or the also well known string of drops
holding 15 beads with each side ending with an end-drop. According to regulation, 10 or 12 or
15 strings are then bound together, that means both ends are tied off and that is 1 bunch. Again,
the gold beads are an exception; whereas the bunch ofsilvered beads is finished, the gold bead
bunch is tied on both ends with braid-silk, usually green" (Schänder n.d., p. 9).
So far I have found the bunch used much more often than the bündle as a commercial unit
in Contemporary (Bazar) and other sources. We do not know with any certainty how many
beads were contained in these bunches, since the bunch can sometimes hold a different
number of beads: at the Munich exhibition in 1854, Fischer’s bunch (“Masch”) held 1200
beads; at Hermann, 1 bunch (“Masche”) of larger beads contained 100 pieces, for smaller
beads, the amount was 1000 for 1 bunch (Munich 1854, report 1855, p. 47).
VENICE AND MURANO
The following numbers have been handed down for the small strung Venetian beads: With
differences depending on size and weight, one bündle (a “mazza”) contains 12 bunches,
each bunch contains 10 strings or Strands (1 bündle = 120 strings). A bündle could
therefore contain up to 22,000 single beads (Altmütter 1841, p. 92). Contemporary
information is frequently very general. This is also true of Bussolin who points to bundles
(“masses”) of various dimensions depending on the quality and size of the beads, and
mentions that the embroidery beads are strung into bundles of 120 strings, each of which is
5 inches long (Bussolin 1847, p. 25: “les margaritines ä broder sont enfilees en masses de
cent et vingt fils de cinq pouces de longueur”).
Zanetti only talks of bundles; these consist of a varying number of strings depending on the
type of the wares and whether they are longer or shorter (Zanetti 1874, pp. 131, 132.
donne e piccole ragazze ... facentone matasse,mazzi, dozzine composte di piü o meno fili
piü o meno lunghi secondo il genere della merce e le ordinazioni”).
104
