interior gilding was done with a gold Chloride solution which was mixed with a soda 
solution, to which chemically pure glycerine and water are added. According to 
Parkert, using pale yellow transparent glass with a silver lining results in golden beads 
with a striking yellowish red shine (Parkert 1925, pp. 165-167). 
Meissner attributes true gilding of blown beads to the Weiskopf Company in 
Morchenstern: 
“Dr. Weiskopf put the real gold bead or fine gold bead on the market; it was an important addition 
in supplying the world with metalized beads from the Gablonz Industry area. What hadpreviously 
been a Parisian asset, Weiskopf accomplished so well that it entered into competition with the 
Parisian products ... Dr. Weiskopf’s own business also flourished: both the true gilded blown 
beads and the gilded and silvered rocailles sold very well...” (Meissner 1954, pp. 22, 30). 
Equating the fine gold bead with the real gold bead, as Meissner does here, 
contradicts the terminology of other writers, as the following shows: “Zenkner, 
Josefsthal, and Pörner Franz, among others... made copper-like blown bugles which 
acquired a gold-looking appearance after being mirror-backed with a silver lining; they 
called this article fine gold bead” (Pörner n.d., p. 3). In 1896 Gustav Schneider in 
Antoniwald got a privilege (No. 46/4066) for a “process for making gold, copper and 
fine gold beads” without using gold. The outside or inside surfaces were coated with 
metal lusters, metal salts or metal powder, silver alloys and other preparations. 
Besides, Schneider differentiated between gold beads (crystal glass with interior 
gilding) and copper and fine gold beads, which he called composition beads (made 
from tubes of colored glass with silver coating). 
PLATINIZING 
At the German-Bohemian exhibition in Reichenberg, Dr. Weiskopf & Co., 
Morchenstern, showed “crystal beads dyed with aniline and exterior gilded or 
platinized beads of black glass” (Arnold 1909, p. 89). The Riedel Company in Polaun 
and Josefsthal made glass rods in a transparent gray color. When beads were blown 
from this glass and lined with silver, one got the most beautiful steel-platinum beads 
very cheaply (Pörner n.d., p. 3). 
IRIDIZING AND LUSTERING 
Iridizing beads seems to have become common at about the same time as iridizing 
hollow glassware, namely at about the time of the Vienna World Fair (1873). Iridizing 
was invented around the middle of the 19th Century (1856) by the chemist L. V. 
Päntotsek for the Zahn glass factory in Zlatno in Hungary (Neuwirth, Glas des 
Jugendstils, 1973, p. 45; Neuwirth, Loetz 1900, 1986, pp. 277-299). While Brianchon 
became famous in France for his iridizing, great importance was attached in the 
Gablonz area to the Weiskopf Company in Morchenstern. 
As far as seed beads are concerned, the terms “iris” and “luster” are defined in glass 
bead terminology as follows (N.N., Sprengperlen, n.d.): luster gives the bead made 
from alabaster glass the mat sheen of real pearls, and on black glass the result is iris 
(as a reflection in rainbow colors). While the iridescent effect on beads is the same as 
for hollow glassware, bead luster appears to be diametrically opposed to luster on 
ceramics and glass, if we think of the Spanish-Moorish luster faiences, copper luster 
grounds on porcelains and lustered art nouveau glasses (Loetz, Tiffany). 
In a French report on the Vienna World Fair (1873) the beads of Bapterosses are 
highly praised, especially those with the “lustres nacres” by Brianchon (Vienna 1873, 
Rapports 3/1875, p. 50). The introduction of iridizing by Paul Weiskopf created in 
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