Stringing the tiny beads was done by hand for a very long time. Schänder reports on this
stringing:
“Skilled women created a special method for getting these little beads onto the threads. A flat
wooden bowl, about 20 to 30 centimeters big, was fllled with as many of these smallest beads as
were needed; the women held two to three long but very thin needles in each hand, they con-
stantly pushed them through the heap of beads until the needles had taken on enough beads.
The beads were pushed from the needles on to the threads". (Schänder n.d., p. 9).
The large quantity of the beads made every day by the machines still had to be strung. The
former manual process of stringing beads on to threads was partly replaced by machines.
Altogether, I know of five Privileges for “stringing machines” from the late 19th Century:
those of the Companies W. Klaar in Gablonz, 1887 (ill. 89, p. 143), Jos. Riedel in Polaun,
1891 (ill. 90, p. 143), Julius Krause in Wiesenthal, 1894 (ill. 88, p. 143), Johann Ullmann in
Tannwald (1896) and Josef Dolensky in Jeseny-Engenthal, 1897 (ill. 87, p. 142). It can be
assumed that bead producers did not give up manual stringing altogether, especially since,
most likely, only the big Companies could afford to use stringing machines, a use that was
not accepted without resistance and criticism. In the Technical Museum in Vienna,
hexagonal “bits”are preserved which point to the Riedel bead breaking machine in date and
description and are therefore of historical value (ill. 91, p. 144). Samples of ballotini from the
Riedel production are also in the collection (ill. 100, pl. 158). At the German-Bohemian
exhibition in Reichenberg, “rounded rocaille beads and the ballotini - the scatter beads -
were represented..., strung on threads, that is, ready for shipping, also made into
embroideries and wreathes.” (Tiedt 1906, Sprechsaal, p. 1402). In the „Centralblatt," this
type of bead, among others, is mentioned in more detail, with the products from the Riedel
bead factory in Przichowitz being remarked upon especially:
“A number of showcases held rounded beads (rocailles) of striped and opaque glasses for em
broideries, beads and little drawn tubes, cut rounded beads, interior ribbed round beads, faceted
and cut beads in attractive arrangements. Among the rounded embroidery beads for the Orient,
the innumerable shades of color are very admirable; the faceted beads for passementeries are
remarkable for their softness, their shades of color especially suited to their use; the rounded
beads for wreathes for graves in opaque and transparent glass are stronger and more brilliant in
color. One interesting article are the solid tiny glass balls (ballotini) made by the Przichowitz bead
factory; in an infinite number ofsize gradations, from the size of a grain ofshot down to the finest
grain of dust, in all colors and shades of colors, they are an important export article to Thüringen,
to use for making brilliant Christmas tree decorations and other decorative items and were also
used for a while for making colored postcards...” (Schindler 1906, p. 1719).
Before the second world war, rocailles were made in Venice and Bohemia, and also in
France. After the war, the Ludwig Breit Company equipped the Wiesenthalhütte in
Schwäbisch-Gmünd for bead-making in a grand style. Up to a few years ago, the Riedel
Company in Austria still made rocailles (ills. 109, 110, pp. 168, 169); today this branch of
production is shut down.
CUTTING
Both solid beads and blown beads with thicker walls can be further processed by means of
cutting. The techniques of grinding and cutting glass have been located in the north; in the
Venetian factories bead-cutting was carried out “only on smaller devices set into motion by
the worker’s hand, whereas this is done in a big fashion in Bohemia with special water
mills.”(Altmütter 1841, p. 105). Altmütter reports that
“Venetian beads frequently go to Bohemia to be ground and faceted. This is even done with the
finest knitting beads which also acquire their facets this way (even though, with their small size,
the facets are not completely uniform) and then become a new commercial article the two distant
countries both have a pari in.”(Altmütter 1841, p. 107).
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