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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.
@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.
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