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Comments

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  Edith D March 5, 2013 at 3:26am

  Another details...

  
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  Alaa eddine SAGID March 5, 2013 at 9:10pm

  Beautiful necklace

  One rarely see gilded stuff from yemen

  A nice balance between the gilding and the agate coulours
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  ait ouakli March 5, 2013 at 9:37pm

  very beautiful. unusual to see yemeni jewelry without carnelien or yemeni/central asia agate. the colors fit great together and the botswana agate and the old african ones are also beautiful.

  the mix of colors and forms is amazing
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  Edith D March 6, 2013 at 4:30am

  I actually don't know much about the agate except that it has been used as a trade bead in the Arabian Peninsula for quite a while.  According to my research both real Agate and glass imitation beads were used.  These tear-dropped shaped beads are traditionally popular.  Ait, I am very curious as to why you think the beads are from Botswana??  I would have assumed that the beads come from someplace like India or maybe East Africa which are traditional trading partners with Yemen.
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  ait ouakli March 6, 2013 at 9:33am

  edith

  the known stones with this lines are : sardonyx and Botswana agate. agate is to find in all continents in different colors but this black african one with clear lines comes from the region of botswana.

  the 2 agates in the extremities are from the region too and the regions arround. looks to me older than the rest of agate beads.

  to see more fotos , just google it

  the beads look made in india

  i like this necklace a lot
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  Edith D March 6, 2013 at 12:24pm

  Thanks, Ait!
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  Joost Daalder March 6, 2013 at 3:49pm

  Although there is a lot of tribal material in this I would not primarily judge it as a "tribal" necklace, but a very pleasantly made up one using good materials. As such it is actually quite wonderful and very wearable!
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  Patricia Deany March 6, 2013 at 4:05pm

  Interesting that this is mercury gilding which is a very dangerous method of applying gold since it vaporizes the mercury. Similar to the Turkoman method of gilding I believe. Does anyone know if this type of gilding is still being practiced amongst jewelers? This is a wonderful contemporary design with old material, love the interplay of the gilded pieces with the agates.
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  Patricia Deany March 6, 2013 at 4:11pm

  BTW, agates are used in Yemeni jewelry. I believe I have a strand which looks a bit like these, maybe a bit more white than dark. Certainly there are lots of agate rings produced by Yemen smiths. here is a pic of the Yemen agates I am used to seeing.
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  Edith D March 6, 2013 at 4:22pm

  Thanks Joost and Patricia!  I was recently told that, sadly, many of these mercury gilded pieces are being melted down in Yemen for their gold content.  By the way, if anyone has the book "Bedouin Jewellery in Saudi Arabia" by Ross, the is a photo on page 107 of a gilded necklace with tear-drop shaped banded agates.  I tend to think this is also a Yemeni necklace, and that there seem to be pieces in this book from all over the Arabian peninsula that she lumps into the category "bedouin."  (As we all know these things do travel.)  I am waiting eagerly for Marjorie Ransom's book to come out (hopefully this fall) because I am sure she will shed much more light onto these and other less common Yemeni pieces.