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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Comments
These simply glow in the 'flesh!'
vibrant and patina rich!!
Stunning necklace!!
very beautiful.
Can you be specific about what you know of these beads.. are these true amber and or copal. they are old and have patina but are different than amber that I have on some of my pieces which seem less molded or shaped? I have also had some like this only in red amber that is very beautiful but again sold as amber and I felt could be copal. Which is younger amber. Then they also made some in the 30's that was bakalite. Then there is the fakes of now. I had purchased (traded actually) one piece necklace that you told me you thought was fake. I have seen since pieces that are similar with the use of the silver band repairs that are new like on the one I have. However the beads on these looked fake and cheap looking. On mine they look half copal ( of the old style) and half real amber) I had not seen the repair type before you had shown me photos and then recently I saw one in a shop that looked reall fake and horrible. I never saw these "fake types" when in Morocco two years ago, maybe they are being made in another place like China? let me know since I can usually tell real amber but it is also very confusing. I know that for example, the amber I saw in Frankie's amber bracelet to me looks like the type I see as being not real, yet it might be... ? she said it had static. I'm not sure that is a good test because it seems some bakelite or plastic also has this.. Anyway it's a good discussion as it is a complex area of bead making.
more specifically my question is about beads above in Bert Flints piece which I see in many catalogues and as real and old, as this one is. But what are the beads actually?
Amber and 'Amber' in Morocco! now there is a subject for a book all of its own!!
I will post some pics and show examples with descriptions and dates.
In some kind of reply to your question briefly:
from the picture, my opinion is that your piece contains both genuine fossil Amber and for want of a better description visually amberlike resin beads. without handling the piece this is not conclusive.
The beads shown in the picture from the tiskiwin are of an early thermosetting plastic /resin called Phenolic, Bakelite is one such material, but there are others. circa 1930
I shall now post some pics of other ambers and 'ambers'
hope they are helpful, but it is so tricky even in the 'flesh' to tell amber from a good fake!!
S x
Linda, - We have a piece fairly similar to this one which we have had since the early 80s and which has gone through many hands since, including several jewellers, some of whom have done all the testing they thought they could do. We had from the beginning thought we were buying copal. The general consensus has been, time and again, that these pieces are indeed copal resin, which I always think is a very respectable material if is has been in use for several decades (as is the case here), even though the material itself is, of course, more recent than "proper" fossilised amber. There is a good deal of "amber" which is good-looking in North Africa which is in fact copal, and this looks to me fairly respresentative. It always has - even though often attractive - a slightly more lifeless, monotonous and "even" look to it than genuinely very old amber, though - as in this case - it even so does have variety to an extent (as it is a "natural" - it is NOT plastic!!), and very good patina. I think it is a very good material, myself, and it seems to sell easily if it is attractive, though that is no doubt partly because it is very frequently mistaken for "real" (i.e. properly fossilised) amber. I don't think that this is of that variety, though I may be wrong, judging from a photograph. I like the necklace, and would regard it as a good tribal artefact, on the face of it. The dividers are also typical, and the darkening of the colours in the side of each bead, as well as on a number of the beads themselves.
Addition: the purple at the end is also quite typical for this kind of piece.
I see that there have actually been TWO separate pieces discussed here. My comments focussed on the more recently posted piece, which it appears was posted by SARAH. Comments remain the same!! AS FOR LINDA'S PIECE, WHERE THE DISCUSSION STARTED ... I think that there the materials used for the beads are quite mixed: (a) some look like genuinely old AMBER, (b) others look like traditional and good COPAL, and (c) I would suspect that some of the more brightly yellow ones, for example, which look very harsh and bright in colour that they are a form of PLASTIC. That is as good as I can say, at a distance. But I am fairly confident in this judgement, i.e. that all three of these - often uses - materials are present. Even though the necklace has very mixed material, is is appealing, and the use of such a mixture is quite characteristic, as so-called "assemblage" necklaces traditionally used by Moroccan women were not put together on the basis of Western notions of what a necklace SHOULD contain.
referring to my piece, the only one I see myself as being copal is the lower right side most yellow bead before right clump of coral and coins. The others are all what I deem as true amber. See second necklace posted of Tibetan amber also same, all real fossil amber.
My feeling on the musuem piece was to my eye that it was bakilite as I know from what I grew up seeing in the 60's and 70's when one saw real moroccan bead necklaces, mostly they were this material which is a exceptable tribal material and is what I consider traditional.
the third category is fake completely much of which I saw coming out from African traders and looking very plastic. However now there are really good fakes coming from where I don't know but are very good fakes. My comment is on one that I have and posted a while back which is a large bead one. To my eye it has both copal, bakolite and real amber but is not fake, however because of the new repairs which I know are contemporary, I thought they were added as a new decorative design however because I saw another one in person in a store, it made me believe that they are making them up. The one I saw was terrible and looked fake yet mine might be better. I believe myself it is different however not up on seeing first hand these in quanity, I am not sure now.
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