Bead (20) - Rosette pearl tubes.

The rosetta or chevron pearls, which range in size from 25x8 mm to 30x9 mm, are obtained from a pierced tube made of six layers of glass, cut into cylinders, ground to confer the traditional cylinder shape.

Credit for the invention of perhaps the most widespread glass bead in the world—the “rosetta”—goes to a woman, Marina Barovier, daughter of one of Muranese master glassmakers. This bead, unique of its kind and ground from a pierced tube, resembles a colorful flower and was initially intended for rosaries. It was created toward the end of the fifteenth century by stacking no fewer than seven layers of glass of different colors and shaping each layer into a star with molds; then grinding the edges reveals a corona of pointed teeth in various colors. It played a leading role in the earliest exports of beads to the New World and Africa between the late 1400s and the early 1500s. The rosetta pearl, known worldwide in the collecting world as Chevron, is the forerunner of the trade pearls, regarded as money, and is still worn by African peoples on important ceremonies today.

The Rosetta, the Venetian pearl of invaluable prestige, dominates the landscape of glass beads for its five-hundred-year history and its recognized beauty. Characterized by an oval, “bottle-shaped” design and a distinctive star motif with concentric layers, Rosetta boasts a palette of classic colors: transparent blue, white, and coppo red (opaque). Its fame is so vast that, according to a nineteenth-century legend, Manhattan Island was purchased by the Dutch for 24 dollars in Rosetta pearls and other Venetian objects. Invented in Venice in the fifteenth century by Marietta Barovier, this bead stands out for a twelve-point design, normally in seven layers in the oldest models, which become six or four in the more recent ones. Rosetta was the first Venetian bead to be used as a trading currency, testimony to its importance as well as its beauty."