Red Glass Floral Bead Pendant

Historical Information

Object: Pendant made from an opaque red floral glass bead

Material / Body: Opaque red soda-lime glass with applied or moulded floral detail

Technique: Press-moulded bead, coloured using copper oxide, gold chloride, or selenium; later drilled or pierced for stringing

Date: Late 19th-early 20th century

Likely Origin: Bohemia/Venice

Pattern/Style: Red opaque floral bead, typical of Buropean art-glass jewellery components

Find Location: Thames Estuary, Essex

Extra Information:

Opaque red floral beads were a popular form of European decorative glass in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when advances in colouring techniques made deep red glass more accessible for jewellery. These beads were produced either by press-moulding, which created consistent floral designs, or by lampworking, where artisans shaped molten glass by hand. Red glass remained relatively expensive to manufacture because it relied on precious or semiprecious metal oxides, giving the colour a long-standing association with luxury. Beads like this were used in necklaces, rosaries, fashion accessories, and haberdashery trimmings sold across Britain through imported Bohemian and Venetian glass. Many were lost from garments or jewellery, eventually entering domestic waste streams that fed into the Thames. Smoothed by time and water, the bead has now been reimagined as a pendant, preserving a small piece of Europe's glassmaking artistry and the estuary's long historical tides.