We have a vast collection of images here which have been shared over the years ...
Click on an image to see the discussions around the piece.
Enjoy!
You need to be a member of Ethnic Jewels to add comments!
Request your copy of our newsletter.
If you would like to receive our newsletter
Comments
A high end Moroccan dealer has approached me to ask for prices to buy fossil amber bead strands.
This I believe is a true indication of the lack of the resource in Morocco.
I asked for amber in Marrakech, usually several kilos would be available, ....I was shown 300 g....
So if you have them for sale please let me know!
S x
It will be interesting to see this situation develop..
Hi Sarah, This was happening as of early 2012. We show our jewelry at the Tucson Gem Show (largest conglomerate show with most major worldwide promoters converging on Tucson every year in Feb) and were quite surprised to run into a dealer that we know from Tiznit! He was at the Tucson show to purchase antique Malian and Moroccan amber. Yes, Moroccan dealers are constantly asking Abdu and I if we are selling as we purchased many kilos years ago- what a great investment. (They used to call us the King and Queen of amber in Tiznit!) We also got many kilos of Yemeni coral years ago at a great price.
This was the first year that I noticed that many of the African dealers had a *severe* lack of old trade beads and most of their stock was new beads from China and India. I believe that this shows how the market has been drained also in Africa. This was very, very sad to see. Old Tuareg items are more difficult to find as well.
We heard about 2 years ago that there were some Chinese people who went to all of the jewelry centers in Morocco and purchased all of the antique amber. It makes sense as China is the greatest consumer of antique amber beads and there seems to be quite a fad or trend of collecting old and ancient beads of amber, agate, coral, carnelian, etc. Going straight to the source and buying bulk makes sense.
I was approached a couple of times on the recent trip by traders hoping to buy the amber necklace I was wearing. And they seemed pretty keen. The same happened on an earlier visit.
I noticed that Faouzi`s silversmith offered us the more usual (in Europe anyway) Baltic amber rather than the type of amber shown in faqrun`s photo when he offered some for him to make into rings for us.
It seemed that only high end traders had anything and it was always made up into something.
Decent coral certainly seems to be going the same way.
Great that you had such a good eye for investment Hillary!
I owe those wise choices purely to my husband!
Wise man indeed Hillary, hi to you, and Frankie is also pretty wise in collecting not only real amber, but the Mauritanian silver beauties.