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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That's am impressive piece, Lynn. I like it a lot, perhaps just because it is all silver.
Somehow I am particularly fascinated by the wide chains on which the dangles hang.
Very good, Lynn. Interesting not to see the gilding which so often is present. And the original stringing, too.
Thank you Joost and Betty.
@Betty, Omani silver work frequently has really fantastic, wide, fully soldered chains. They are silky smooth to touch.
@Joost, while I don't have much Omani reference materials what I have read is that gold became very popular in Oman in the second half of the 20th century. New pieces were made with gilding, and also Bedouin women brought their old all-silver pieces to the jeweler to be partially gilded. This piece may pre-date that.
dear Lynn ..this is a great piece and great photo…so ..as you know ..the grey background works just perfect..congrats
Angelo
Thank you for your comments, Lynn. I have just looked at Truus's *Ethnic Jewellery and Adornment*, for I felt fairly sure that we had an Omani hirz ourselves. And yes, we do. It is shown on p. 387, and it too is without gilding. We dated this "mid 20th c". I have in recent years become so attuned to those that do show gilding that yours was a surprise to me, but the reason may well be exactly what you say!! On information about Oman: we were unwise enough NOT to by *Oman Adorned* when that was available for USD 300, and have had reason to regret that ever since, for by common consent it is the book to have ... The point about gold may very well be correct, I find myself thinking, for on p. 390 Truus shows a pair of (Indian type) armbands (anklets) which I very much remember buying and which are well made, but definitely second half 20th c and not earlier. The really desirable ones are always made of silver only. We dated this pair accordingly as "second half 20th c". And this is just one example.
Very attractive and complete piece!
I am for once more attracted to the chain, then the box proper! lots of caracter!!
I am interested to know more about the use of gold on Omani silver and find the info Lynn had given very interesting, especially under the light of Omani history and its ties to Zanzibar and slave/gold trade.
One can expect the gold to be used since a long time on Omani pieces in comparison to the much more conservative neighbouring yemeni traditions.
Could it be that the gold sheets technique which came to be applied on Omani silver was rather a post petrodollars compromise between, the all-gold traditions that became the norm in, for instance big cities/city states, of the persian gulf and the more conservative coutryside interior of the Arabian peninsula (yemeni mountains, omani mounatains and deserts)?
If it is the case, then your piece Lynn is definetely older than the more common silver with gold ones and in that respect, the evolution of Omani jewelry (amidst the hike of the income from the oil revenues) is highly admirable compared to neighbouring countries which abruptly lost their ethnic traditions in favor of indian made all-gold jewels.
Interestingly, this piece is clearly gilt, yet looks (and is described) as though it is pre-1950. I find myself still a bit uncertain. As you say, Alaa, sheet gold was also used in Oman. Could it be that such use of gold, and gilding, was also used before 1950 but that its used vastly INCREASED after around that time? That would be a somewhat different scenario, but still explain why one comes across so many that seem relatively recent and are gilt (or partly covered with sheet gold) at the same time. Link: http://www.omanisilver.com/contents/en-us/d385.html.
@Alaa, unfortunately my understanding is this was a temporary development and that now almost all of the jewelry worn in Oman is gold with much of it externally manufactured, but some of the old silver designs have been replicated in gold with local goldsmiths. I would love to learn more but like Joost I am kicking myself that I didn't buy Oman Adorned a few years ago when I had the chance. The third bracelet here is a traditional design made in gold.
@Joost, yes that could be totally correct. Here is the exact text and the reference page, which also notes that rich women were already wearing all-gold in the 1830s. According to Miranda Morris, "When gold became more readily available in Oman, and as she or her husband could afford it, a bedouin women took other pices to have gold-leaf addd to them, or for them to be gold-washed... if a piece were to be gilded, it was generally considered better to have it done in Adam, where the silversmiths had a lot of experience in gilded silver, rather than send it south to Salalah where gilding was little practiced." Oman Adornd p 221 http://www.omanisilver.com/contents/en-us/d366_SILVER_BRACELETS.html
Lynn, - Speaking tentatively, I am made to think of India after what you say. Traditionally, wealthy women there were the wearers of gold all along, and gold was what a woman aspired to. A large number of of less wealthy (but usually not poor) women wore silver, with the less poorer ones wearing inferior materials or nothing. When we seriously started collecting, around 1980, we had already bought pieces that were "ex-hippy" in the west, which hippies had bought from women who were either graduating to gold, or - at that time more often - happy to get western money for their silver. Those silver pieces were splendid buying for westerners with a modest (or not so modest) purse: almost always well made and of good quality, yet very cheap. As we grew richer, we bought the odd gold piece, often of a kind that had come to Europe (Britain) long ago in the form of presents to officials etc, or purchased by Brits in India. These pieces, when we bought them, were always (a) rare, and (b) expensive - even decades ago. In India, where the rich were getting richer and there was a DEGREE of upward mobility, meanwhile more and more women bought gold only, and in recent decades there has been a huge move to gold, either in traditional forms (including pieces formerly made in silver) or "new" (but usually extremely well made). The amount of gold used by Indian women in fact regularly affects the global gold price. The latest and most interesting movement has been that the silver pieces which once were so cheap for westerners have gone up in price quite a bit - AS silver pieces! - because, fortunately, there are now serious collectors of silver jewellery in India trying to preserve that heritage. A very good development.
Hey Joost and Lynn…i followed all this discussion,,with very interest
at the end of all facts and all the history behind …Joost is right !!! the ethnic silver in India is soooo expensive ,,,infact i can't afford in the limit of my budgets not even a nice bracelet…infact i have only few pieces and small…..so…suddenly they woke up about their heritage ?? or they see more lucrative interest from avid western collector ??
Best
Angelo
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