This is from an ebay auction-- an over priced necklace advertised as North African with amber and petrified wood beads. I don't know about the amber, but the petrified wood beads are in fact Tunisian scent beads and this is the first necklace I have seen on ebay with this kind of bead Just thught I would share the pic and that knowledge, kind of a landmark for me. If the beads are, in fact, fossil amber, then the necklace is worth the price. But really no way to tell from the pic. The scent beads are truly unusual to see on this website.
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I have found this on Etsy - a seller dealing with new scented beads:
https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/212571016/fragrant-amber-necklace
Lynn, that ebay necklace indeed had scented beads...I bought a very similar one from the same seller and it arrived a couple of days ago. There is still some faint scent to it...vaguely like Chanel No5! I didn't buy the one which you posted a picture of though as I think that it might have an ornament missing from the drop...somehow the balance seems wrong to me.
New Djerban wedding necklace with lots of lozenge shaped skhab beads
Contemporary Tunisian beads from the Tunis bazaar.
On my trip to Tunisia in September, we found many wonderful scent beads, newly made, at a shop in the Tunis souk. They were made in many shapes, different variations of the hamsa, lozenge, stamped and of various sizes and sold by the gram. It was like heaven. These beads are incorporated into necklaces, primarily found in Djerban wedding necklaces, temporals and novelty necklaces with different hands of Fatima. The new beads smell wonderful, the older ones have faint or no smell at all. I try to store all the beads in airtight containers to preserve the scent that they had. These beads were also incorporated in what looks like mid-century European or souvenir necklaces with resin amber beads. Some of these souvenir necklaces also contain stamped beads. Recently, I bought a necklace from a delightful Dutch lady who made her own beads from a recipe she obtained in Senegal, these lozenge shaped beads were strung on a necklace with old Dutch trade beads and she enclosed a recipe for me with a few of the ingredients. The Algerian beads seem to be entirely different from the North African, they are smaller, and colored and strung in great abundance on long necklaces. Moroccans and Palestinians also make clove necklaces for weddings, the apprearance of the necklaces are quite different in each country. Later, I will include some pics of the necklace shapes and designs.
The making of scented beads as it was initially done by ladies at their own home would not imply the use of smiting techniques such as metal framing and metal wires stringing.
At most if a lady comes to be famous as a quality skilled scented beads maker, she could easily get her beads sold to a number of women from the local community who would even commission her for beads during special occasions such as weddings. The recipe is kept secret and the artisanal hand work would allow for irregular beads which would also differ in their quality (as regarded by locals) mainly through the concentration of volatile scented oils employed.....the more concentrated the paste in scented oils the higher quality it is considered to be....Some very old beads of excellent quality do still have a dark black colour, almost oily , maker had employed the best ingredients in good sizes and obviously even back then, the price was high...majority of ingredients were far flung exotic or rare such as Agar wood or ambergris....
Examples shown on this thread showcase an obvious machine made beads and sometimes quite naive commercial patterns such as hearts, animals, crescents....they are obviouly made for a large scale merchandising and market and the very fact that many of these example are to be found in western hands today means that they were exported likely through the tourist trade....necklaces are symetrical, void of prophylactic or talismanic elements and especially do not showcase any precious material or techniques such as enameling.
Recently i have came across few pieces of jewelry that indicate there was a steady trickle of export adornments made in Egypt for the Tunisian and Algerian markets in the late Ottoman times which might also indicate that it was not a new trend back then (Late 19th century) but apparently the last stage of a flourishing trade westwards from the more refined ottoman colonies of Egypt and possibly the levant.
Among these pieces were characterless fake gilt coins and beads chokers with tiny "sented beads"!!!
We can surmize about an ancient eastern origin of these scented beads which disappeared from the middle eastern heartland but survived in the peripheral North African cities before it reached North african countryside.
Another vote for this theory would be the heavy use of cloves to make various jewels exhale an attractive scent which is still vivid in part of the north african countryside (i have also personally witnessed it in rural Iran around the Zagros mountains)
All these scented materials are far eastern and south asian ingredients that were likely made available when the trade networks were firmly established in the medieval islamic flourishing world that linked without hurdles, the indonesian archipelago from the east to north african medinas and south spain riches!!
Lastly getting back to the tunisian tradition, it seems that between the old hand made beads and the tourist trade copper framed ones, there exists a thrid type mostly in heart shaped but also stamped of foliage and floral patterns, made using a light stamping mold (?) which were produced for the local market and often strung with the late enameled silver work.. a survival of the old traditions likely made for the attire of the wedding day in tunisian coastal cities ( mahdia, moknine, djerba..) where traditions have managed to survive longer than elsewhere in the country.
On my last visit to Tunisia, i have also witnessed the making of new scented beads which are surfing between hand and machine made in a very contemporary way, ingredients seems to be of a lower quality and prices but the effect is striking when used with contemporary silver...they make for lovely adornments and maintain the tradition alive.
Thank you for the information Ann. Someone from this site should go get them! :)
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