the “maka”(listed as a product from Riedel) were made from black hexagonal tubes with the 
chopping machine and freed of their sharp edges in the rounding muffle (Tayenthal 1900, 
p. 21). On the other hand, “macca”were also understood to be 
“the simplest beads made from chopped bits (‘Hackebissel’), are tumbled dry in a wooden barrel 
to round off their sharp edges and then polished the same way in water” (N.N., Sprengperlen). 
The quality of the beads is used by Zanetti to distinquish between “fine, mezzo fine, piombo, 
vetro, nero;”and size for “collane, cannettine, cannette ä 3, 3 V2, 4, 5 and V2.”The French 
called the “collane, ” “charlottes"or ‘‘roca/7/es’’depending on their size (Zanetti 1874, p. 132). 
Benrath saw in the “beads, nothing more than short pieces of tube,” “enamels” wblch often 
were five to six times longer than they are wide, mostly in black glass, but also colorless and 
in bright colors, found in the trade under the name “Schmelzen” (jais, bugles, seed beads) 
and still show sharp edges (Benrath 1875, p. 348). 
“Seed beads are the smallest glass beads in various shapes, colors and sizes, which are used 
for clothing Ornaments, clothing trim, chains, for decorations, in the jewelery-wares industry orfor 
making into fashionable accessories. ... Raw glass beads, so-called ‘macca’ were imported by 
the ton from Venice. Here in the district they were refined and exported In addition, producers 
also bought the tubes and had them broken off and worked on by cottage workers...” (Dressier 
n.d., p. 1). 
“For a long time, the fabrication of the rocaille beads was only undertaken in Venice, but in the 
year 1887, was introduced here by Jos. Riedel in Polaun and since then they have made them 
very successfully and with the understanding that is usual in this Company, so that it has become 
an important competition for Venice ..."(Gablonz 1898, p. 163). 
The finishing of Venetian beads in Bohemia is documented in numerous sources, including 
Contemporary ones. When, in 1793, Schreyer mentions “seed beads that are finished in 
Meiffersdorf not far from Bohemian-Kamnitz” (Schreyer 1793, p. 61) it is not apparent 
whether these beads were produced there or only refined there; Schreyer goes into 
somewhat more detail in 1799 regarding “seed beads” and “Bohemian stones" (Schreyer 
1799, pp. 308, 309): 
“Seed beads. Are partly round, partly oval, perforated glass seeds or corals with which a woman 
adorns her neck and hands, and if required, also used for all sorts of decoration; they are made of 
enamel glass in all kinds of colors. These seed beads are brought from Venice raw and here in 
these parts in the Dominion Bohemia Kamnitz in the village of Meistersdorf are cut, of which 
about 26,400 fl. worth are made there every year” (Schreyer 1799, p. 309). 
“Bohemian stones” valued at about 20,000 fl. were finished annually (Schreyer 1799, 
p. 309). 
Venetian beads were still processed into the late 19th Century; the Company, F. A. 
Flellmich’s Son-in-law, is mentioned as a “Refineryof Venetian seed beads...”(Ackermann 
n.d., after 1873, column 177). 
TECHNOLOGY 
The Venetian knitting beads have always been considered an important branch of the 
“small art of glass making:” 
“The little glass tubes 2-3 lines thick were dra wn by bead makers atthe lamp, sorted (by means of 
a sheet of metal with slits filed into it with specifically calibrated widths) and divided into the right 
length by a worker with a little hammer on a little anvil. Sorting according to size is done in sieves. 
In a vessel, the holes of the little cylinders are filled with powdered coal. The pieces are heated in 
wide iron vessels with flat bottoms and stirred around until the sharp edges have become 
rounded. Cooling takes place on sheets of iron, stringing is done with slightly curved needles con- 
sisting of thin iron wire threaded with fine thread. Stringing the beads by sticking the needles into 
the beads held in deep bowls, was mostly women’s work ... I have the preceding description 
thanks to a well-informed woman and her husband who made a journey to Venice and Murano not 
long ago and saw the whole procedure, exactly as it is described here"(Loysel 1818, p. 303, 306). 
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