Uranium Glass Mudlarked Glass Bead Pendant

Historical Information

Type: Uranium Glass Bead
Material: Uranium-Infused Pressed Glass
Date: Late 19th – Early 20th Century
Find Location: Colchester, Essex, UK

Description:
This striking pale-green bead is made from uranium glass, a special type of decorative glass that contains a small amount of uranium oxide. First produced in the early 1800s and extremely popular throughout the Victorian and early 20th-century periods, uranium glass is best known for its vivid green glow when exposed to ultraviolet light — a feature clearly visible in your bead under UV illumination.

The bead’s softly rounded, rectangular shape and smooth edges suggest it was manufactured using a pressed-glass mould, a common method from the mid-19th century onwards that allowed glassmakers to create uniform decorative beads for jewellery, embroidery, and clothing trim.

Uranium glass was widely used in household ornaments, tableware, beads, and small decorative items. Despite the name, it is completely safe to wear, containing only trace amounts of uranium that pose no risk. Its glowing quality made it particularly desirable in the Victorian era, when coloured glass reached a peak in popularity.

Lost long ago and later recovered from Colchester, this bead shows the gentle surface weathering typical of old glass exposed to soil and time.

Now repurposed as a pendant, it carries with it a luminous piece of Victorian decorative history — one that quite literally lights up under the right conditions.