Photos

Comments

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  Leonor Arnó October 16, 2012 at 9:07am

  Hi, I have some doubts about this necklace. I bought it in Yemen, but  for me it looks more like indian? The coins are rupees from Queen Victoria and Georges VI, but they could be a part of the trade between the countries.  I don't find to much information on the books either. Can you help me?
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  Joost Daalder October 16, 2012 at 11:58am

  Overall, this does not look like and Indian piece. The triangles do look Yemeni, and so does the general design. The coins are indeed likely to result from trade, I would think. Perhaps a bit of a mixture, but it has a more Yemeni than Indian feel to it, and I'd think that it was more likely worn in Yemen than in India.
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  Patricia Deany October 16, 2012 at 12:49pm

  This has a more Yemeni look--but not a Jewish Yemeni one, an Arabic Yemeni look, what with the little balls hang from the middle and the coins. The top triangle pieces, though, look a little bit Jewish with all that decoration. I know that arabic pieces use coins, but not usually rupees, they usually use the larger Maria Teresa thalers. I kind of think this is a melange, but, not necessarily but a dealer, perhaps by the original owner who put the pieces together for embellisment.
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  Leonor Arnó October 16, 2012 at 2:35pm

  Thank you very much for the information!! I also saw that the triangles were yemeni, but the several rows and the coins confused me. I have 3 similar pieces to this one, some of them with more yemeni pieces as rectangular silver piece with granulation, so I think that maybe they were used in a small portion of he country.

   

  Thanks again!
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  Joost Daalder October 16, 2012 at 9:38pm

  India had quite an impact on the Arabian peninsula: some of the anklets in Oman, for example, were clearly influenced by Indian examples. So the Indian component should not surprise us. The idea of several "thin" strings in succession is very much found in Yemen. I think that those were, in this case, simpler and cheaper to produce. Not much simpler work and perhaps glass rather than coral, or at least in some places (but I cannot tell from the photo). It is quite attractive, all the same, and if the other ones have more Yemeni pieces and are in many ways similar than I would conclude that they are all Yemeni: (a) they would wear their own triangles/squares rather than that India would; (b) the "architecture" is that of Yemen necklaces, not Indian ones, and (c) the pieces are modest - probably for a smaller purse and possibly "provincial" - whereas India always aimed, in silver, fairly high. So what you say about a particular portion of the country makes sense to me. They are NOT "phoney" - clearly "tribal", and for a tribal community.
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  Joost Daalder October 16, 2012 at 9:47pm

  I had not seen Patricia's comments, ethnic adornment, when I wrote my own recent ones. But they are very much to the point, and I think what she says reinforces what I also think myself. Her point about the thalers (very often used in Oman) is a very good one, but I would not let the rupees put me off. We also agree it is "genuine", not a dealer's piece made for quick sale. A bit of a melange, as we have both said, but ultimately a piece made in Yemen, and for Yemen, incoporating Indian material, but Yemeni all the same. With both Pattie and me making similar and complementary comments I think you have reason to believe we are probably looking in the right direction.