Cane glass then and now

These are "cane glass" beads. They are beads that are made by hand by taking thin rods of glass, heating them, joining them together, and then stretching them. The final stretched rods are then cooled and cut into small "beads" and the holes are added. It is a time consuming process and it is one of the reasons cane glass beads are so special - no one bead is the same.

Because of the symmetry of the rosary, it is rare to see a cane glass rosary, especially with modern cane glass which tends to be intensly colorful and variagated. It would be difficult to acheive that symmetry with a modern section of cane glass beads. In the past though, cane glass was much simpler as pigments were harder to come by and the tools weren't as developed.

This rosary is made of very simple cane glass. It is quite old and probably one of the few glass rosaries of its age. The cane glass, as you can see is simple, only one color rod has been stretched, but you can see the way it has been hand cut by the variations in the size of the beads. In addition, the maker added a silver center and ornate crucifix. For the time that this rosary was made, this was an extremely fancy rosary. It was probably made between 1890 and 1900, a time when most rosaries were constructed out of wood. So given the time period, it compares to the large crystal and sterling rosaries viewed elsewhere in this blog.