Prescott Trading Post and Bead Museum Volume 44.1
PRESCOTT TRADING POST AND BEAD MUSEUM BUILDING with entrance under the porch, leading to the first floor which hosts the trading post/bead museum. Although it is March, there was still snow in this mountain city. CLOSEUP of a large collection of high quality Kiffa pendants; these triangular ornaments are worn in the hairdos of Mauritanian women. The intricate designs are made of powderglass moistened with water/saliva into a paste and applied with a needle onto a monochrome core, which is then heated on a charcoal fire to fuse the glass. It may take a day or two to complete such beads, which were made in the early 19th century (Busch 2012). Photographs by Robert K. Liu and Patrick R. Benesh-Liu/Ornament.
THOMAS STRICKER AT THE MUSEUM PORTION of his building, holding one of the primary references for ancient Saharan art and artifacts. The bead timelines and sign on the walls were rescued from when the Bead Museum in Glendale closed. For those desiring a detailed tour of Stricker’s Trading Post and Bead Museum, YouTube has his presentation from the Tucson Bead Symposium 2023. You can also find the video on Ornament’s website on the Events page. At the present time, there are no labels on his displays of beads, jewelry and artifacts, although Stricker will readily tell visitors their identity. One can easily see that the beads on the walls are segregated by type.
The Prescott Trading Post and Bead Museum opened this Spring in Arizona, the culmination of a lifetime goal by Thomas M. Stricker, longtime bead and artifact collector and dealer, as well as graphic artist, cartoonist, jeweler, lapidarist, and Internet personality. His Facebook page, Bead Collectors Helping Bead Collectors, has over 10,500 visitors. Born in Stuttgart, Germany, he came to the United States with his family at age 10 in 1964, another immigrant who has so enriched our country’s cultural life. With a varied and spicy career, after serving in the U. S. Air Force, he built the leading and largest firewood firm in the Southwest, moving to Prescott from the Phoenix area upon retirement after fifty years. Following some three years of difficult construction and permit approvals, and over budget construction costs, the result is a striking two story building with basement and yard, flanked by shipping containers that serve as a part of the rear yard fence. Thomas and his wife Wieslawa, or Vickie, live on the second floor, with the museum/trading post on the first floor. He is the only staff, although a friend helps him with artifacts, horse trading and identification of material. Visitors to his place experience a hands-on approach to the items on display, including the 6,000 some strands of beads, many hanging on the walls. Due to the restricted space, the maximum number of visitors is limited to sixteen at one time.
Thomas Stricker only started selling seriously around 2012, although most who collect ethnographic and ancient beads and artifacts will have encountered his booth, usually with the Ethnographic Group at the Tucson Gem Show. While covid and the downturn among Asian buyers have greatly impacted the Tucson shows, they were often lucrative in the past. In 2013, his first sale paid for the show costs.
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PRESCOTT OFFICE, with part of the library of books and magazines. Stricker, like most serious collectors, maintains a reference library, both at the office and at home. PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIO at his former home in Peoria, AZ, 2012; having his younger brother Alex being a professional photographer helped him in having very sophisticated lighting, cameras, lenses, and studio fixtures. INTACT MAURITANIAN LEATHER BRACELETS, studded with Kiffa beads, some with altered cowrie shells. UNUSUAL TUAREG PENDANT of engraved silver, decorated with small Idar-Oberstein dyed agate talhakimts.
Started on the collecting path of coins and stamps in childhood by a favorite aunt, his bead collection began in 1971 at the Tucson Bead and Gem Shows with a $20 cylinder seal. The collection is especially strong in beads and artifacts from Mauritania, specifically the rare powderglass Kiffa beads made only by Mauritanian women, and also Islamic glass beads, popular and numerous in that region, including many which may be the precursors of these unique powderglass ornaments. The strength of his collections is due in part to his close association with Jürgen Busch, a fellow German who has traveled extensively to this Northwest African country to study their beads and culture, particularly the antique Kiffa beads (Busch 2012) and with whom he is co-authoring a book on Kiffa and other Mauritanian beads. Stricker financed a number of the Mauritanian research trips. Between the two, they may have about some 6,000 – 7,000 Kiffa beads. These beads, which may date to the early 19th century, represent immense numbers of hours of delicate labor by Mauritanian women, although there are now replicas and fakes, with the best made by Indonesians, according to Stricker (Busch 2012, Kaspers 2022). In addition, Stricker bought the Kiffa collection of a couple who worked for Air France, having lived and collected beads for thirty years in Mauritania. The Islamic bead portion has also been augmented by buying from European sources. During his collecting career, Stricker has also bought from all the leading African bead dealers.
HARAPPAN STEATITE SEALS that are primarily intact, with carvings of unicorns or bulls and felines. These date to around 2000 B.C., usually of fired steatite, some of faience, all rare. NECKLACES OF ISLAMIC GLASS BEADS AND ISLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA: striking and colorful, this category of beads has been understudied in the past. Their excellent condition is due to the dryness of Mauritanian soil/sand. The very elaborate adjacent necklace consists of conus shells, animal teeth decorated with seed beads, carved wooden figures, glass beads, and a monkey skull, from Borneo.
Stricker is among those bead enthusiasts whose collections have grown so large as to warrant inclusion in a museum, like Gabrielle Liese, James Lankton and the Picards (Liu 1990, 1999, 2002, 2010), of which only the Picards’ is still extant. The Washington D.C. bead timeline and collection, primarily from Lankton and other donors, was donated to the Yale Peabody Museum, where it is a physical exhibit as well as an online panel that is interactive. Fortunately, members of the Yale Anthropology faculty and students are actively engaged in bead research (Ornament News, 2014). The Liese collection formed one of the first American bead museums, in Prescott, which moved to Glendale before the beads and other ornaments were donated to a California museum, along with documentation and the agreement to hire a curator familiar with the collection, upon the passing of Liese (Liu 1990, 1999, 2002, 2011). (Other museums opened earlier, such as the former Cottonlandia Museum, which had a substantial bead collection but was not totally devoted to this category of artifacts.) Unfortunately, there have been few exhibitions of the Liese collection, and portions have been deaccessioned and sold, including very rare beads and jewelry. Such practices are unethical, especially with material that has important scientific and cultural value. The sad fate of bead museums and their collections, as well a decline of interest in the collecting population of beads is paradoxical, given that bead research is now a vigorous academic field and yielding important information about early humans.
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MAURITANIAN GLASS BEADS, INCLUDING FUSTAT/MORPHIA, some of which served as precursors to Kiffa beads.
Probably most collectors when they start out do not realize the responsibilities that a significant collection places upon them. Many of the large and important collections would not be possible to replicate now, given the changes in the economy, laws, depletion of stocks, and the widespread conflicts in parts of the world where beads and ethnographic jewelry occur. In the past, African bead dealers could draw upon a Nigerian warehouse for their own bead inventory, but it is now empty (pers. comm., Stricker 3/5/2023). The bead trade in Mali, described by the Pringles (2014), provides an example of this type of economy in an African country. Mali and other areas of the Sahel are now active conflict areas, as was Mauritania. Without museum or academic personnel who are interested in the research or cultural value of a donated collection, the fate of that donation will not bode well, even though museums are supposed to be safe and lasting repositories of their collections.
Even for someone who has been exposed to all types of bead collections, I was staggered by the quantity and quality of beads/artifacts in the Prescott Trading Post and Bead Museum. For most visitors, Stricker’s collections would be overwhelming. Even minimal curating, like identifying their material, age and origin would take great skills and much knowledge. Beyond this, there is massive cultural value, which when properly researched, could add greatly to our bead knowledge. Even my cursory study of his Islamic beads in the past greatly increased my understanding of this large and important category of beads. During our last visit, I realized I had only known about a small portion of his bead collections.
TRAY OF PIERCED PAD-ROLLED MOSAIC BEADS from Mauritania, most showing characteristic radiating lines. These attractive beads were widely traded in antiquity.
In order to maintain and afford the considerable costs of his new Prescott endeavour, Stricker is now selling parts of his collection, including some of the best beads, to advanced collectors, often foreign, even offering discounts to the right buyer. With his numerous contacts in the bead community, he is able to reach buyers that others may not be able to access. Being aware of the financial pitfalls of collecting, he now buys beads and artifacts with an inherent value, such as those made of silver, gold or gemstones. Those who participated in the speculative Asian market for dZi or other etched stone beads will readily understand this pragmatic approach. As a result of local interest in his bead museum, Stricker now gives tours and lectures on his beads and artifacts, helping to make his place a destination, since Prescott, being at a high elevation, receives many visitors, especially those seeking more temperate conditions during the hot Arizona summer.
How one collects is often a reflection of her or his character and fairness in transactions. A dear friend of his, an immigrant from Italy who owns a barbecue restaurant in Arizona, gave him two necklaces composed of beads she dug up as a six year-old at a Turkish beach adjacent to a fortress in Krikalesi. Consisting of Greek, Roman, Islamic, and other beads, including a very rare spherical Man-in-the-Moon bead that displayed the four phases of the moon, as well as a glass spindle whorl, he realized the rarity of this gift and gave her a year’s worth of firewood for her business. Later, he asked Billy Steinberg, noted song writer and bead collector, to send her his biography. Steinberg graciously also wrote out the lyrics, including his autograph, of her favorite song, True Colors. Because of the scientific value of this Man-in-the-Moon bead, Stricker and others had compositional analyses done on this specimen at Arizona State University, resulting in a publication identifying its place of manufacture as Bavaria and approximate age, possibly as late as 1811 A.D. (Stricker et al., 2018).
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Figure 23. Tabular Gorgon bead, with blood arc to left side of head, example of poor crafting of face cane. After Sarpellon 1990: Fig. 22.
Figure 24. Tabular Gorgon bead, with Grecian freize around face, instead of hair bundles, described by Alekseeva 1971 as curly hair. From RKL scanned database.
Figure 25. Tabular Gorgon bead, same source as those in Fig. 26, with hair bundles around most of face, with small blood arc, resulting in sunburst appearance.
Figure 26. Group of tabular Early Roman Mosaic Face Beads from Crimea, which might be from the same cane, and the face of the most right-hand bead has been damaged by the hot-piercing process, which almost destroyed one eye. Courtesy of the Harbaugh collection. RKL 315FM21a.
Figure 27. Lozenge or rhomboid shaped tabular bead, with Gorgon as a woman with bust, black line necklace, from Nubia, with unique snake bundle hair, flesh-colored face/bust. She is most likely meant to be a Medusa, perhaps requested by the Nubians from the source workshop in Egypt. The unique shape of the bead is most likely done locally by Nubians (Then-Obłuska pers. comm.) Ca. 1.2 x 1.5. Courtesy of Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Liu 2017.
Figure 28. Square tabular Early Roman Mosaic Face Bead of Medusa, with necklace, black hair merging into background black glass, bundled-rod checker surround, from Crimea; 1.6 cm wide. RKL 315FM4a.
Figure 29. Spherical face bead with cane of Gorgon hot-worked into Medusa, with overlaid hair not entirely hiding the rods representing Gorgon’s snake hair. At least 6-7 such beads exist, demonstrating how imprecise glassworking can reveal important diagnostic information (Liu 2017). Courtesy of Walker Qin, Beijing Bead Museum and Library.
DISPLAY CASE WITH ANCIENT AND ETHNOGRAPHIC ARTIFACTS including precolumbian stone and metal celts, copper money, prehistoric Southwest pottery, Native American basket, and numerous other small items, with strands of beads below case and on flanking wall. TYPESETTER’S DRAWER filled with large numbers of Nueva Cadiz cane beads from early bead trade, primarily to Peru, as well as some large diameter beads from the African trade. Those from South America were often associated with small chevron beads.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank Thomas and Vickie Stricker for their help and hospitality during my visits to their former home in Peoria and new quarters in Prescott, with either Patrick Benesh-Liu, Walker Qin or myself. I thank Barbara and Robert Pringle, and Jamey Allen for help in researching the fate of the Washington D.C. Bead Museum collection. While The Bead Museum in Prescott or Glendale were in being, I was actively involved with both.
REFERENCES/BIBLIOGRAPHY
Busch, J. 2000 Lauscha Blown Glass and Marble Beads. Ornament 24 (2): 30-35.
—2012 Kiffa Beads of Mauritania. A Fall from Grace. Ornament 35 (2): 56-61.
Kaspers, F. 2022 Beadmaking in Java. Inspired by History. Ornament 43 (1): 26-31.
Lankton, J. W. et al. 2003 A Bead Timeline. Volume I: Prehistory to 1200 CE. Washington, D.C., The Bead Museum: 96 p.
Liu, R .K. 1990 Museum News. The Bead Museum. Ornament 14 (1): 48-49.
—1995 Collectible Beads. A Universal Aesthetic. Vista, Ornament Inc.: 256 p.
—1997 Museum News. The Beaded Universe. Ornament 20 (3): 58-59.
—1999 Museum News. Bead Museums. Ornament 23 (1): 78-79, 90.
—2002 Museum News. The Picard Trade Bead Museum. Ornament 26 (1): 86-87.
—2010 The Bead Museum. Ornament 33 (5): 68-69.
—2011 In Memoriam. Gabrielle Liese. Ornament 35 (2): 15.
—2012 Islamic Glass Beads. The Well-Traveled Ornament. Ornament 36 (1): 58-63, 70.
Ornament News 2014 Peabody Museum at Yale University. Ornament 37 (2): 23.
—2023 Prescott Trading Post & Bead Museum. Ornament 43 (4): 23.
Pringle, R. and B. 2014 Learning about Beads in Mali. History, Glass and Diplomacy. Ornament 37 (4): 51-55.
Stricker, T., K. Karklins, M. Mangus and T.Watts 2018 Sourcing a Unique Man-in-the -Moon Bead. Beads 30: 60-62.
EXAMPLES OF STRICKER’S MANY ARTISTIC SKILLS, with the upper strand of beads made by him of various gemstones/other precious materials, demonstrating his lapidary skills when he was a gem cutter. The framed drawing is an aspect of his cartoon/graphic arts careers. The articulated, cast silver pendant of a Pinocchio-like boy stems from his jewelry making in the past, when he was carried at Neiman Marcus.
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Robert K. Liu is Coeditor of Ornament, for many years its in-house photographer, as well as a jeweler using alternative materials like heatbent black bamboo and polyester fibers. His last book, The Photography of Personal Adornment, covers forty-plus years of shooting jewelry, clothing and events related to wearable art, both in and out of the Ornament studio. A lifetime avocation of scale modelmaking culminated in the publication recently of a book on naval ship models of World War II, published in the United Kingdom. Jewelry of Chinese faience, composites and glass, ancient, ethnographic and contemporary, are among some of his research interests, as well as Roman mosaic face beads. In this issue, he writes about the remarkable bead museum and trading post recently opened by Thomas Stricker in Prescott, Arizona, holding what might be the largest single collection of beads and artifacts representing worldwide cultures. He also writes about his late sister Margaret’s eighty-year-old Chinese charm bracelet, a genre about which little is known, as well as photographing different types of jewelry.
