A digital archive showcasing the extensive collection of jewellery and adornment images shared on the former Ethnic Jewels Ning site over the years. These images have significantly enriched discussions on cultural adornment and its global dispersion.
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This resembles a late nineteenth century Teke asyk as appears in Schetzer, page 215.The carnelians are placed a little differently, but the gilded floriform design is almost identical. Asyk, of course, are head adornment, worn usually on the back of the head. Plait pendants or dorsal jewelry. Evidently worn by married ladies.Schletzer says that this design represents"the union of male and female." It does seem to be lacking the narrow strip of gilding running around and enclosing the two groups of motifs ( the gilding would come in between the motif and the granulated border). Schletzer's book gives detailed symbolic references to all of the designs used in these pieces -- some people believe them to be a bit far fetched, others deem them to be appropriate and well researched. .From what I see in the Schletzer resource, this is quite a common motif for Teke asyks. The Yomud, and Ersari also use these pendants but they differ in design and symbolism. Anyway, all of this and far, far more info can be obtained from Schletzer's Old Silver Jewellery of the Turkoman.
About these pieces for the back I know they were fastened by silver chains that were fastened to the loupes on the sides and at the top of the asik and fastened by silver hooks on the cloths.
The gold on the silver should be "fire-gilded" and the stones carnelian. I also can tell you that the old ones of these pieces of jewelry are made from silver hammered flat to make a plate of silver. All big, flat pieces of Turkmene jewelry are made this way.
You must be able to see this clearly at the back site (the hammering I mean) . The new items are made from ready made silver plates which are very flat and strait.
that lower cab is to die for, very smoothly worn!!
@Patricia
Can you comment on that lower cab which seems to be a reused carnelian bead!!
S x
what interesting comments about the bottom bead, resp.cabochon! Which means, a very close look can reveal lots of things! Very interesting about the different Drilling methods on stone or glass beads, which widens my horizon once more! What a wonderful place this is! (It is almost 01.00 am, cannot sleep due to snow coming tomorrow, and am learning instead about Drillings etc.! Much better than getting upset about not being able to sleep anyway!
S x
The asyk comes in different sizes and is often used to embellish larger pieces of dorsal jewelry. It is probably the most popular and recognizable of all Turkoman jewelry and lots and lots of modern pieces are still being made but, as Harald stated, using different techniques and cheaper materials. An asyk this size should be substantial, both in weight and presence. The newer ones are usually lighter and flimsier with almost no granulation. Actually, Ayis, I agree, the lower stone seems to be a replacement bead because it does not fit in the original setting, it is smaller evidently than the original. It also appears to rounded rather than table cut.
My goodness! Thank you all very much for all this information. It has raised some really interesting points. Patti, can I get back to you last because there is so much to answer.
@Sarah and Alaa. Thank you so much for spotting the strange internal channel of the lower stone. To begin with I thought it looked like string :)). But I'm glad that you identified it as an old bead made of stone which had been drilled. Wow!
@ Harold. Thank you so much for the information about how this might have been worn. I haven't seen a picture of one in situ although I knew it was a dorsal asyk. Thanks also for the explanation of how these big pieces were made. I'm going to insert a picture of the back of the asyk and I think you may be surprised by the way the design shows through. What has happened? Was the present design engraved over an earlier design. Is it a palimpsest? I'll try and insert the picture here.
Patti. Thank you so much for all this good information. I went back to the Schletzers' book this morning and had a look at the asyk on page 215 which I'll insert here. I can see there are many similarities but I wonder if mine is a little older. To me it looks like the patterns on very old Turkish tiles from the seventeenth century. I'm not claiming that the asyk is that old but have a look at these. The blossoms on the asyk I showed are just like these. The blossoms on the Schletzer asyk seems like a later development. How old can existing asyks be?
Here is a picture of the asyk from the side. The bezels holding the carnelians seem quite high and I haven't seen others decorated in such a way. The asyk bezels I have seen have been mainly shallow and plane - as on the Schletzer asyk. Two other questions relate to the disposition of the carnelians: horizontal and vertical. When I first saw the asyk I found this was quite disconcerting... like a face. Have you seen others which use this arrangement and I wonder if this has any significance. Is it meant to disconcert?. The other question relates to the 8-pointed star. I wonder what this represents? So many questions.....