Brilliantly threaded

The glass bead is one of the oldest pieces of jewellery known to mankind. The glass beads produced in the Fichtelgebirge in Paterl-Hütten were used to decorate jewellery and everyday objects. They were exported all over the world, as far as Africa, America and India. The Maasai have been wearing multi-row necklaces made from Fichtelgebirge beads for over 100 years. The moccasins and necklaces of the Iroquois in the east of the USA were also embroidered with miniature beads from Upper Franconia.
The beads were made by hand in glass furnaces around Warmensteinach until the 1960s. Alexander von Humboldt reported on this as Prussia's chief mining inspector in 1793, using wire connections to make baskets, trivets, hanging baskets, doll's furniture and doorbell trims. All colourful and shiny.
The mini pearls, produced over an open flame on a metal rod, were used for textile jewellery, embroidered on collars, dresses, braces and belts. Spectacle cases, tobacco pouches and notebooks were also lavishly embroidered. From the Biedermeier period onwards, bags and purses were knitted from miniature pearls. Glittering stones were also worked into stockings and wrist warmers. A speciality were funeral wreaths made of pearls, which adorned graves in the German Empire until they were banned around 1960.
In the exhibition "Glänzend aufgefädelt !", over 100 objects made of glass beads from the Baroque to modern times, including Maasai necklaces and Native American necklaces, are on display. They date back to the early days of collecting at the Fichtelgebirgsmuseum.

Last edited on 06.05.2026