Prestige or Display Beaded Glassware
Tutsi People
Rwanda
1930s-1950s 
Imported glass bottle wrapped with a mesh of glass beads strung with cotton thread
10.75" x 4.25"  (11 x 30 cm)

The vibrant tradition of beaded glassware, which speaks to a brilliant adaptation and fusion of indigenous forms and foreign influences in Rwanda and Burundi, was a colonial innovation rooted in traditional Tusti basketry and patterning that met the same needs for prestige display and gift-giving.