By the Twentieth Century, the Dragon Was in Hot Water

Even the most revered of sacred images can become the subject of satire, or simply a domestic decoration of sorts.  I am not sure exactly what statement this carved jade amulet from about 1900 in China was meant to pronounce.  It portrays the usual symmetrical dragons, one on each side not of a pearl or the phoenix bird, as was usually the case, but the two dragons are clinging on and sitting in what we call the hotpot, a vessel served to each table at a Mongolian barbecue.  The hotpot is full of near boiling water or oil or both and would make even a supernatural dragon quite uncomfortable, I should think.

Nevertheless, this is not an uncommon amulet to find in antique collections in China.  Here is the image I am discussing.

Old Hand Carved Kunlun Jade Pendant with Agate and Bronze Beads

This is a piece carved in the twentieth century in China. It was bought from Shanghai. This is the modern ironic temperament toward the sacred dragon symbol that had predominated in China for about five thousand years. In the early twentieth century, a pair of dragons are carved in the medieval style with elaborate coils and clear facial features and in the ancient iconic pose with faces turned back looking in opposite directions. The ironic or maybe satiric element in this carving is that the dragons are being boiled in a hot pot. 

Anyone who has been to a Mongolian barbecue grill knows that the hot pot is brought to the table with raw fresh meat or fish and skewers. The hot pot is steamy if not boiling hot and the diner skewers his/her meat or fish and dips it into the hot pot to cook to her/his satisfaction. Here the jade carver puts dragons, a symbol adopted by royal and noble families, into the hot pot to stew a bit. I will let the reader decide the meaning of this carving. 

The jade from which this satiric message is carved is Kunlun jade, a part of the imperial jade family, meaning that this jade, along with Hetian jade and Xiu jade, was highly valued by the royal dynasties of China. The Kunlun mountains, the source of the jade, divides the extreme Northwest desert part of China from the Tibetan plateau and Central China. 

As the descent is made by a traversable route, the traveler soon comes upon the source of one of the great long rivers of our planet; the Yellow River. The sites of some of our earliest human cultures have been discovered along this great river that stretches from Western China through Mongolia and empties into the Pacific, a length of 5,000 km -- about 3,000 miles.

Some of the world's most beautiful old agate beads are strung with the pendant. The ovoid beads on each side of the pendant are hand cut and hand drilled old dragon vein agates. The small round beads are also hand made beads. The smoky quartz and banded agate tubular beads are not old. The spacer beads are from Tibet and made of bronze finished metal with no lead or nickel content. The fastener and bail for the pendant are of the same material. 

Both sides of the pendant are shown in the photographs above. 

Measurements: 18.5 inches long
Pendant: 6.5 cm (2.5 in) x 6.5 cm (2.5 in)

For more information on this piece for sale, see CraftsofthePast.Artfire.com

Turkoman Attire Worn by Author of Blog

Turkoman Teke Tribal Woman's Attire in Merv, Turkmenistan

Click link to see more such jewelry.  

First the tall gilded silver and carnelian jeweled head covering is usually worn as a support for the veil, hidden except for the high front part.   This shawl or veil is made of finely woven silk, embroidered with traditional tribal symbols.  The spinning of the silkworm's web and the weaving, sewing and embroidery are all done by hand.  

The plain and gilded silver jewelry are made by the male silversmiths of the tribe.  You can see this giant cuff bracelet at the studio that houses my collection.

These Teke tribal silver cuff bracelets with layered gold and table cut agate cabochons. Matched pair of bracelets dated to 1850-1900 by Dieter and Reinhold Schlecter in Old Silver Jewellery of the Turkoman. Heavily decorated in tribal symbols and with the superior craftsmanship of the Teke silversmith. Because of their age, each of the bracelets shows marks of repair, revealed in attached photos.

These are typical of the Turkoman silversmith's techniques. They worked mainly in silver that had been imported from surrounding countries in the form of silver ingots. This the silversmiths melted down and formed their own almost pure heavy silver plates. No rolled sheets used in the master silversmith's hands.

The traditional tribal designs were laid out in a layer of thin gold, not a wash but a very durable amount of gold on the silver.

This process is made much more difficult in the case of large bracelets. The bracelets are hollow. so two sheets had to be put together smoothly. Only the face of the bracelet was gilded. The edge of the bracelet is either signed or decorated with something that looks like calligraphy.

The gemstones used are nearly always carnelian, sometimes turquoise or glass. Edges of Turkoman jewelry usually have ancestor symbols attached in the form of stylized rams' heads or just the horns. The gilded cut-out patterns usually suggest plants or water.

The jewelry worn by a Turkoman female reveals her status in the tribe, whether a wife or an unmarried woman, and something of her standing in the wider community.  This is true of all the clothing worn by the Turkoman woman, from the jeweled collar necklace to huge breastplates that reach from the top of the chest to the waist line, a dressy robe of silk and embroidery, a head covering resembling the one above and rings and bracelets all are meant to show the status of the wearer. 

Turkoman Ancestor Commemoration in Gilded Silver Ornaments

The motive or tribal consciousness of the Turkoman is expressed in the ornamentation of their homes, their animals and themselves.  To this day in Turkmenistan, their outdoor bread ovens made of clay bear the ancestral commemorative symbol: the ram's horn.   You will almost certainly see the symbols in the carpets, on the walls of their tents or homes, in the embroidered panels of their chapans (men's cloaks) and the yokes of the women's dresses and the edging of their head covering.  Perhaps the most important place for the symbol is the grave marker.

The wood amulet was worn when they were mountain dwellers.  And the dagdan, an amulet made from the wood of the dagdan tree is still highly prized.  It not only commemorates the spiritual practices of their ancestors, but the trees are still there in the mountains, the origin of the Turkoman.  The dagdan carries the power of the ancestor and of the mountain.

But the ancestor symbol is most striking when we see it mounted atop a gilded silver amulet (prayer box) with the prayers and blessings sealed inside.  Such a piece of jewelry is usually worn by women, just as the wood dagdan is worn by women and children.  Here is an example of a gilded silver amulet (acar bag) made by the Western Yomud tribe in the first third of the 1900s:

The central motif at the top of this amulet has an abstraction of a ram's head, the carnelian serving as the head and the outward curving gilded silver forms are the horns.  That is a very noticeable ram's head when the piece is worn.  More abstract are the embossed forms of the horns surrounding and dividing the carnelians on the front of the amulet.  

You also note that the ram's horn is so decorative that it has a floral quality.  This reveals the Turkoman's instinct to abstract the essence of floral and arboreal forms as well as their beautiful water symbols in pieces such as this: 

The flowing, almost rippling shapes that are purposely not gilded, but remain silver in order  more powerfully to suggest water in movement.  See more about this piece at http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/craftsofthepast/3889681/Turkoman

Still, the mountain and the ancestor motifs are two of the three most important and most universal symbols among the Turkoman.  In my next blog post, I will discuss their symbols for the family.  

Reference: Dieter and Reinhold Schlechter, Old Silver Jewellery of the Turkoman, 1983.

The Mountain as a Turkoman Motif

The triangular plaque with pendants is as prominent as the dome in the repertoire of the Turkoman silversmith.  The triangle is often backed with a piece with the same cut-out patterns of flora that the front plate has.  This two-layered hollow structure is very common in the best of the Turkoman jewelry pieces.  The photo here shows a good example of this kind of workmanship:

As you will note, the back and the front are almost identical.  But the space in between the two layers is open, as you see the red cloth background through either side.  

Many mountain symbols or *tumar* are made of rather thick, solid silver, often with gold applied to certain parts of the pattern inscribed on the front.  The back of the plate is left plain.  As in this example: 

In these side-by-side comparisons of items that came from the hands of Turkoman silversmiths, perhaps from different tribes, but all hold the same world view, and all express their spirituality with symbols of the mountain of their origins (tumar), the dome (gupba), the family (triple asik), the amuletic tube (bozbend) or the rectangular prayer box (galaj?).  In the case of the tumar/bozbend the mountain symbol and the amuletic tube  are combined for a spectacular piece such as that shown in this photo:

One of the serious studies of Turkoman culture, including the myths and symbols that express the mindset of the traditional Turkoman people, was done by Dieter and Reinhold Schlechter, Old Silver Jewellery of the Turkoman, 1983.   Copiously illustrated with drawings and photographs of the jewelry being worn by the people, as well as catalog photos from important collections.  It is a fascinating study of a culture that is in its vanishing stages.  

More information on many different examples of Turkoman jewelry from items for everyday wear and also items of museum quality can be found at http://craftsofthepast.artfire.com

Black Coral Prayer Beads with Silver Inlay

This is a string of prayer beads from a prosperous, devout person in Yemen. They are so worn that the silver inlay is smooth and pleasant to the touch. The beads extend 36 inches along a fine leather cord with plenty of room for the beads to slide along as the prayers are said. There are 99 beads, two separator drop beads and a longer drop bead at the joining of the string. Once upon a time, there would have been a tassel attached to the long drop bead, but it is worn away and now there is only a knot in the fine leather cord.

This item comes from Yemen, but it was not made there. The center for fabricating this kind of prayer rope was Istanbul, Turkey, capital of the Ottoman Empire, during the 1800s. The silver used in such work had to be up to the Empire's standards. By the early 1900s, the Empire was gone but these antique prayer ropes have lasted. 

Bead measurements 9mm (0.34in) long; 8mm (0.32in) diameter; total weight a bit over 75 grams.

More information at http://www.artfire.com/ext/shop/product_view/craftsofthepast/3809103/Antique