Antique SVC Venetian Transparent Marigold Orange #6 Square Hole Seed Beads 10/0

Antique SVC Venetian Transparent 10/0 Square Hole Seed Beads — Marigold Orange #6

Genuine Venetian 10/0 seed beads from old Società Veneziana Conterie warehouse stock, in Marigold Orange #6 — a warm golden orange in fully transparent glass, sitting distinctly on the yellow side of the orange range. Held to the light the color reads like marigold petals or clear honey, with a gold core that brightens rather than deepens. Against the Orange #3 in this same series it is the softer, more golden of the two: #3 is a cooler pumpkin that leans toward red, while #6 leans toward amber and yellow. Buyers matching period work should treat them as separate colors.

Square hole. These are square-hole rocailles, drawn from square-section cane rather than round. In transparent glass the square perforation is not just a threading detail — it reads straight through the bead wall as a visible square silhouette suspended inside a round bead, and the flat interior faces of the channel return light differently than a round bore does. It is the quickest way to confirm a match against period Venetian beadwork, and it means a round-hole transparent marigold will not substitute here however closely the color agrees. Square holes also seat a little differently on thread than round, which can subtly change how tightly rows pack in loom and peyote work.

Being fully transparent, the color compounds where beads overlap: isolated beads at the edge of a spread are bright and almost lemon-lit, while massed areas build to a deeper amber-gold noticeably richer than any single bead. This particular lot is notably speckled — a large proportion of beads carry dark interior specks, and a few show larger amber-brown inclusions, all clearly visible against the transparent glass. These are cane-drawn Murano manufacturing artifacts and evidence of stock that was never sorted or strung for the bead trade, not damage from handling. Buyers wanting a clean, inclusion-free spread should plan to pre-sort.

Warm transparent golds served as light-active accents in period Venetian beadwork, where their transparency let backing color read through the bead. At 10/0 these are a practical working size for regalia restoration, loom work, bead embroidery, and peyote. Browse our full SVC orange and square-hole inventory to compare against your reference material.

Sizing note: This lot is catalogued at its original card designation of 10/0, which corresponds to approximately 2.4–2.7mm in SVC production. Antique beads are measured from original stock and sizing is approximate; dimensions may vary between lots. We recommend pre-sorting before count-critical work.