“Charlottes taillees” was the name given to irregularly cut Venetian embroidery beads. 
These were “the smallest and most valuable beads in a rieh assortment of colors” (N.N., 
Sprengperlen o.J.). 
Beads can be cut by tastening several round tubes with pitch “parallel and dose together 
onto a board and worked together, or also by grinding them in a trough of a hard surface, 
one after the other” (Graeger 1868, p. 120). The simplest cutting devices were the hand- 
held ones (“Handzeuge’) like those commonly used in Turnau. Here the artistic cuts on 
stones were achieved with so-called “quadrants.” Among the most beautiful Gablonz 
examples of cutting from the Biedermeier period are the beads of a Gablonz Biedermeier 
necklace which shows each bead in a different type of cut (ill. 143, p. 206). In Gablonz, 
larger stones were easier to cut in cutting mills, and even the “small work” was soon done 
there, too. Kukan was another center for stone cutting starting in the last quarter of the 18th 
Century. Using pedal driven cutting benches (“treddle tools”) they cut extremely small 
stones (“carmoisiere”) (Benda 1877, pp. 278 ff.). The composition producers and glass 
merchants from Liebenau also turned to the stone Cutters of Gablonz and soon stone 
cutting was also introduced into Reichenau (Benda 1877, pp. 278 ff.). 
The number of rows of facets is pointed out by the terms, two-cut, three-cut, etc; according 
to Posselt the “two-cut beads”were characterized by the somewhat irregularly cut corners 
of the broken bits. Posselt also calls the two-cut beads “screws.” According to his reports, 
they were placed for a while in a box containing a grinding plate and were ground (Posselt 
1907, pp. 3, 10, 11). “Three-cut beads" resulted when the broken bits were ground once 
uniformly, according to Posselt. There were also five-cut and seven-cut beads (Posselt 
1907, p. 3). In another place, Posselt States that the two-cut beads were made in the same 
way as three-cut, except that none of the corners were cut, only ground round on a mandrel 
(Posselt 1907, p. 9). According to Posselt, the glass used to make the smaller black two-cut 
and three-cut beads was first drawn round and then cut to a hexagonal shape in the 
grinding mills. These tubes (called “Staigl”) were cut apart at treddle tools and placed on a 
mandrel or a device with a stick and ground so that every edge is cut off uniformly towards 
the hole on both ends of the bead. 
A Contemporary source explains the “two-cut”and “three-cut” beads: 
The glass cutting works were - according to Lilie - operated on wheel benches (with 
vertically or horizontally rotating wheels or discs of iron, stone or wood). The wheel benches 
were mostly leased to the glass cutters by the owners of the works (Lilie 1895, pp. 166- 
167). Towards the end of the 19th Century, the cutting works for buttons, crystal wares and 
glass stones dominated in the Gablonz-Tannwald district. Glass stones were also cut in the 
neighboring Czech areas where “bead cutting has its sole seat”(Gablonz 1898, 164). 
The cutter worked at the treddle tool or at a water driven wheel bench, a workplace the 
cutting mill owner usually avoided. Models of hand and treddle operated tools illustrate this 
technique and also provide a picture of the bead-cutter at work (ills. 131-134, pp. 188- 
191). The use of machines for cutting glass beads is documented in the second half of the 
19th Century: I found the oldest privilege of this kind among those held by Hatscher/Haida 
from 1868 (ills. 118, 119, pp. 178, 179). The production of the little cut glass beads was a 
process worked out by Strauss in Gablonz; it consisted basically in pressing the glass tubes 
against the Steel disc of a quickly rotating cutting-cyclinder (ill. 120, p. 180). Processes for 
cutting glass beads in drums go back to Rössler/Wiesenthal (ill. 123, p. 181) and Bayer/ 
Gablonz (ills. 121, 122, pp. 180, 181). In addition to a drawing there are also samples 
belonging to the privilege awarded to Strauss/Gablonz (ills. 124, 125, p. 182); the bead- 
cutting apparatus of Schöler/Wiesenthal was acquired by Weiskopf/Morchenstern in 
concession (ill. 126, p. 183). The privilege held by Schmidt/Friedstein was concerned with 
“the rounded cutting of glass corals” (ills. 127, 128, p. 185). Bead-cutting machines were 
also registered for patenting by Daniel Swarowski, Franz Weiss & Armand Kosmann 
(ill. 129, p. 186) and by Hellmich/Wolfersdorf (ill. 130, p. 187). 
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