Glass bead

Pale blue-green translucent glass ring-bead, with marvered trails, diam. 2.1cm. The green glass is very bubbly like the glass of 7th century vessels. The trail appears to have been made by means of a spiral rod of translucent green and opaque white, now discoloured to a fawn colour, so perhaps yellow. Anyway the opaque glass has badly weathered, compared for example with that on the similar bead M 6631 where the yellow is still good. The resulting diagonally striped trails have been applied round the hole on either side, and from the centres outwards in loops which touch or overlap on the edge of the bead.