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African and Asian Trade Beads 10th August 2010 I have recently returned from an enjoyable and successful buying trip in a very hot, wet and humid West Africa, which is in rainy season time. My thanks for your patience to all the customers old and new who sent in order enquiries during my travels and are waiting for the full details to be sent. During the next few days I will be sending you those details and processing your orders before sorting, processing and publishing the interesting items I was lucky to find. Newsletters will be sent out once these updates are complete and I look forward to hearing from you. 1st July 2010 Any items that are requested in order enquiries will be reserved on a list in the date order that they arrive and full details will be sent to you soon after my return. My apologies for the extra delays, but without regular trips to Africa, I cannot find the special beads for ATB to offer you. Many of our antique Kiffa and ancient Morfia enthusiasts have been waiting for a long time for us to find more good specimens. If you remember, in my January Newsletter following my November / December 2009 trip, I said that we did find a few acceptable Kiffa but there were no Morfia on offer anywhere. Out of the other very limited numbers of original production Kiffa that we did see, 95% of them were either badly damaged or had been clumsily repaired … and were on sale at prices equal to those previously paid for good condition beads, so we did not buy them. I also said that we would again be trying to find good specimens of both of these exclusive and now very elusive beads on our next Springtime trip. Well, from a combination of travelling long distances, having exceedingly good luck to be in the right places at exactly the right times .. and of course with the invaluable help that our loyal dealers give us in not only trying to find the beads we want, but also to point us in the direction that they think we might find them from other sources ... we found some absolutely superb antique Mauritanian Kiffa. We were so lucky to find such rare and magnificent specimens in such pristine condition. I hope you agree with me and even if you are not a Kiffa aficionado, you can enjoy the spectacle of these much sought-after, but nowadays rarely found examples of the artistry and skill of the ladies of Kiffa Town in the early 1900s. We also saw some classic examples of ancient Islamic Morfia in pristine condition. But they were priced so highly that it was impossible to buy them and have any hope of being able to resell them at an affordable price to anyone without the resources of an Arab oil billionaire !! Naturally, if any Arab oil billionaires are reading this and would like some genuine but expensive Morfia beads to enrich your family's collection of historic Islamic heirlooms, please do get in touch.
Also on the successful front we found some excellent examples of 7 layer Chevrons, which were the earliest of the Venetian Chevrons, made from the late 1400's onwards. These good quality beads show some very fine layering. Our Millefiore and Venetian collections have had many additions, along with a further selection of attractive Medieval single beads. Amongst the Specialist Strands and in our African and Ancient sections, you will find rarely seen items including some lovely Hebron, first quality Nila and additional collections of African Silver. Our Stone section has had more additions and includes some very attractive natural Stone Pendants from Mauritania and a wide selection of nicely coloured Amazonite strands and single beads. Our other Website www.asiantradebeads.com continues to be regularly updated with attractive and interesting items we have found and two more pictorial travelogues have been added to www.toubab.com. Both of trips taken a few years ago, but hopefully of interest to those of you with an interest in South African landscapes and wildlife and those who would like to compare the beading scene and other sights of the USA, between then and now. I hope you enjoy them. We continue to help to support many families with our long term bead-buying friendships and your purchases from ATB and our purchases from our African suppliers, do provide a considerable amount of direct help to many people, in many more ways than you may imagine. Probably even more importantly nowadays, as many of the 'more developed' nations are too busy trying to solve their own financial problems to remember their promises of aid and assistance for Africa. I Wish you all the Very Best and look forward to hearing from you.
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