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.

old ivory,silver bracelet from india detail

nice patina and wearing, silver / ivory bracelet from india with elefant heads
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  • Nice! You rarely see such nice examples... Love the silver elephant heads even though I always struggle to identify them as elephants. For some reason I always see a duck in front of my inner eye ;-)

  • Love the silver fittings on this one and the henna used to dye the ivory. Lovely old piece, but controversial even now.

  • Thank you Betty and Patti, yes old ivory looks fantastic. The wearing and henna make it more interesting
  • I believe the ends of the bracelet are adorned with Makara heads,makara being a mythical beast with features of various animals - elephant, fish, lion, peacock...

  • I like the Makara theory Preethi - it means that it's maybe not just my lack of imagination when I fail to see elephants? 

  • thank you Preethi, interesting informations, it is like hanumann then

    i had as neighboor an indian restaurant, theyhad everytime i went there a foto or sculpture human body with diffrenet animals heads, when i was asking the owner, he was always saying hanumann. i asked him howmany hanumanns you have , he answered : every creature can be hanumann even you ( he ment me ) i smiled to him and said, if it is the case, then i can come every day eat for free, who knows , maybe i m the hanumann ??

    as a smart business man, he answered me: we expect that hanumann helps us and gives us, so, that day you will come for sure with a treasure to us. so i had to pay my food and give a bigger tip

  • Great story Rabah!

  • Rabah, I love your stories! That Indian restaurant manager is one crafty businessman :)

    Stylized depictions of makaras show a stubby trunk, very much like the one on this bracelet. This wiki page has info and photos: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makara_(Hindu_mythology)

  • Lovely to see aged ivory like this!

  • thank you frankie, yes beautiful. before i posted this bracelet, i consulted a friend who is good in old natural materials and knows a lot about ivory.i larned a lot from him about the red color in the african and indian ones ( Henna as Patti ) wrote, the darker color in the china ones, the tip about making it wett sometimes and many others

    Preethi

    i must admit that since i m living in europe, i had and still have many friends from india. there is always interesing things to discover with and in them

    can you believe that one of my indian friends ( kashmiri) eats olives every day, when i realise it in the begginig, i asked him if it is some thing special he finds in or it is a tradition or anything als ?

    his answer: we dont have olives in india

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