Asian Ethnic Jewelry from the Arabian Desert

Arabian Bedouin Bracelets

The continent of Asia extends from the Mediterranean in the West to the Pacific in the West: think Hong Kong.  I include in my own delineation of Asian borders as being  from Siberia in the North to the tip of Saudi Arabia in the South, but some might include a greater part of Russia.

Perhaps the most intriguing jewelry being worn in Asia are the very eclectic 'jangling' jewelry of the various nomadic peoples of the deserts of Asia, in the Karakum and Kizilkum of Turkmenistan, the Gobi and Taklamakan in China, the Sindh in Pakistan and the Sahara  in Arabia.  I call it jangly or jangling jewelry because it is usually put together in a way that makes a musical sound as the wearer moves.  Hollow bracelets may be filled with tiny pellets or stone chips so that they whisper with the wearer's movement.  For example this pair of Bedouin bracelets from the Arabian desert of Yemen was created with such an enhancement.

Antique Pair Yemen Silver Bracelets Bedouin Style over Hollow Form

These bracelets are fabricated as hollow circles, having the jangly material added before soldering the two halves together.  The bracelet in the top position in this photo has been emptied of its contents by boring a tiny hole through it, so that act suggests that the jangly material is very small, such as large crystals of sand or the tiniest pebbles from the shores of the Arabian Sea perhaps.  The bracelet made in the same techniques as the one above still has its jangly contents and makes a pleasant sound as it moves around the wrist.  

There will be more in this series on Ethnic Jewelry from Desert and City, including jewelry from some of the various regions of Asia.   See much more on Yemen jewelry at my website Crafts of the Past.  

Turkoman Gilded Silver - Yomud Tradition

In the preceding post, we compared the gilding methods and results of the Turkmen silversmiths and the Yemen silversmiths.   Readers have asked me to write a bit more about gilding, so I am happy to show some examples from another tribal tradition among the gilders of silver among the Turkoman tribes.

I rely on the researches of Dieter and Reinhold Schletzer in their book Old Silver Jewellery of the Turkoman.  I am not a silversmith, nor do I even know one.  But their book is rich in explanations of the physical methods of making the Turkoman jewelry and in interpreting the traditional symbols in the ornamentation.

Those of you familiar with embossing metal will recognize the repousse or chased technique used in the guljaka or collar button (large!) of the Yomud woman in this photo:

Antique GulJaka Gilded Silver Collar Button of Youmud Turkmen Women

The collar button is made by laying out a thin sheet of silver, usually good silver because the Turkmen people were using silver ingots from Europe. That first thin sheet was left plain. Then another sheet of the same material was stretched across a template and pounced with soft hammers or chased with a stylus to create the embossed or repousse patterns. Then it was gilded with a process involving heated mercury and gold. The mercury would vaporize and the gold would combine with the silver sheet of repousse designs. 

The designs themselves are traditional and used over and over again in the Yomud ornamental style. They are dotted floral abstractions and strictly numbered sets of jewels and symbols. On this piece there are double sets of 12 floral patterns each. You can count them around the scalloped edge of the round guljaka. The outside set has two embossed flowers; the inside set of 12 has one larger embossed dotted flower between each glass jewel. 

Around the central green glass jewel, there are double sets of 12 ancestor symbols, the abstraction of a mountain sheep head, used everywhere in Turkoman jewelry, on their tent hangings, in their carpets, on their outdoor clay brick ovens, on the entry to their homes. The symbols are arranged facing each other with the inside circle of twelve ram heads being smaller than the outer ring of ram head ancestor symbols. 

The jewels are made of green, red and blue glass cabochons. The central jewel is molded glass in a kind of baroque faceted pyramid or mountain shape, also significant to the Turkmen people, as they memorialize their origin in the Altai Mountains in their ornamentation. 

The patterns that you see in the embossed face of the gilded guljaka would have been pounced into the gilded silver or chased into it with a stylus from a highly polished brass template such as the one in the photo below:

Compare the Yomud traditional ornamentation of their gilded jewelry with the Tekke tradition so well illustrated in the example below.  There you will see that the Tekke tribal silversmiths work with cut out patterns in the gilded layer that they then solder to the basic silver layer.  You can see the silver layer showing through the cut out designs.  

Below is another example of embossed gilded silver jewelry, this time in the Western Yomud tradition, a part of the same tribe that made the guljaka above but occupying a different location in Central Asia. I am including an explanation of the tribal symbols from the Schletzers' book cited above.  

Antique Western Yomud Gilded Embossed Amulet Containing Prayers

This is one of the most beautiful amulets: it is a bearer of legends of the Turkmen. First the fact that in the Yomoud tribe this flat rectangle served the purpose that the cylindrical bozbend served in the Tekke tribe. This shape accommodated a booklet, whereas the bozbend carried a scroll which would not be so many layers of paper as a miniature booklet might have. Added to that, the rectangular or hexagonal tube that is the bozbend did not have the space for surface decoration that the embossed ram head anecestral symbol of the Yomud tribe required. Of course, the Tekke tribe remedied that situation by attaching their bozbend to a tumar - a flat equilateral triangle symbolizing the Altai mountain from which they originated. 

The five old turquoise gems have changed color as it does with time and exposure to the elements. This designer, gilder and silversmith in the Western Yomud tribe was not as rigidly traditional in his patterns as he might have been. Five turquoise gems is not divisible by four, as tradition would require. You will note that there are eight dotted floral figures and eight ram heads placed symmetrically around the gems. In that at least the designer was holding to tradition. But he parts with the rules again when he places two repousse flowers and two abstractions of flowers above the prayer box or açar - bag. 

A very similar prayer box of the Western Yomud tribe is shown on page 107, plate 39 in Dieter and Reinhold Schletzer's Old Silver Jewellery of the Turkoman. There the açar - bag has three glass gems on the gilded face of the box, while the fourth sits atop the box with four matching symbols of dotted floral abstractions. 

Visit Crafts of the Past to see more old Turkoman jewelry. 

Gilding Silver in Yemen and Turkmenia

It is time to talk about gilded jewelry from the 1900s specifically in Yemen and Turkmenia.  First to note is the fact that most jewelry at that time was made of silver by highly accomplished silversmiths with very basic tools and sometimes employing hazardous techniques in making the gold layer over the silver.  Such jewelry is termed vermeil or gold plated, gold washed or gilded.  It differs from a metal alloy wherein the gold and silver would be blended quite thoroughly in the liquid state.

Here is a good example of Turkoman silversmith work in a gilded tumar/bozbend; that is a mountain symbol (tumar) with a prayer tube (bozbend) at the bottom of the tumar of this very fine piece of antique workmanship.  

See more information on this piece at my website.

Since gold plate is what we moderns are most familiar with (we are ignoring gold tone which does not use gold), we will begin there.  Gold plated and gold filled are the same kind of jewelry, only that gold filled usually but not necessarily means that there is a thicker covering of gold than with gold plated jewelry.   When I first dealt in jewelry many years ago, gold plate actually had more gold on it than did the gold filled.   At present, silver is plated with a relatively thin gold layer with modern machines that do electro-plating.  It is usually done in a factory, but it can be done in a home workshop.  

This method was not available to the West Asian people in the early 1900s.  They employed heat from a fire, first to melt the metals they were using and then to apply the gold layer to the silver in a permanent covering.  The best methods and highest skill were found among the silversmiths of Turkmenia: the Turkoman settled regions of Central Asia.  First of all, by 1900, they were able to trade with Europe for genuine silver ingots, so they began the crafting of their silver jewelry with precious metal.   

When the ingots were melted, the silversmiths began the rather hazardous work of applying the gold in a process which produced vaporized toxic material.  I provide here a very over-simplified description of the process: 

The method of applying the gilding is quite interesting, and it lasts much longer in the Turkoman jewelry than it does on most jewelry of the Middle Eastern regions. After the silver has been hammered and smoothed to the perfect thickness, the pieces cut and inscribed, but before the gemstones are set, thin gold plates are heated red hot and mixed with mercury, the amalgam being placed in water. Then it is applied to the desired parts of the cleaned silver surface. The silver becomes amalgamated with the application of certain mineral powders, after which the gilding amalgam can be applied and then heated. As the piece heats from warm to hot, the silversmith uses cotton wool to rub the piece to evenly distribute the mineral. 

Below is a photograph of a kirdan or Yemen woman's bridal necklace worn at her wedding and on special occasions thereafter.  Most of the kirdans of the early 1900s and previous were not gilded, but this piece is.  The method common among Yemen jewelers possibly used an open crucible in the heating and melting process, because the gold amalgam layer is not as durable as the process used in Turkmenia.  With long wear and exposure to weather, the Yemen gilding will simply rub off  or discolor because of the chemicals used in its application.  If it has not worn away, a brisk buffing will bring the shine back. 

There are more photos, more information and more similar pieces at my website in this section.. 

Yemenite gilded silver plaque and prayer amulet with fertility symbols attached.  

See more information on this piece at my website.

Making and Marking Amulets in Yemen

Antique Yemen Amulets made in same pattern, signed by same maker

After my husband no longer traveled to Yemen, a trusted acquaintance would seek out special beads, matching bridal dowry bracelets and anklets, whole kirdan or bridal dowry necklaces and of course the signed bridal dowry amulets. My husband was interested in finding as many such pieces as possible and our Yemeni acquaintance, also a collector, was able to find a dealer who was able to translate a few of the signed pieces. The script used is an archaic South Arabian script and was not legible to most of the present Yemenis. 

Even though this exquisite pair of amulets was not translated, we can see that the signatures are the same. Our collector acquaintance was able to see that and tied the pieces together when he sent them to us many years ago now. We have left them tied together and wish to send them to a new collector as a pair. This is a rare find for a person who is still building a collection. I am in the process of downsizing my own to just the few items that my husband brought to me for my personal jewelry chest. 

The feature of this pair of amulets that adds to its rarity is that the large amulet opens to receive a prayer or blessing written and placed inside and worn on the wedding day and on other important occasions in the woman's life. The cap that is removable for placing or removing the prayer scroll has a tiny loop on it to make the task very easy. These pieces are in excellent condition. The smaller amulet, which is still large in comparison to most of the pieces in our collection, has loops from which once hung small round hollow silver beads, a traditional decoration for the amulets and beads of a lady's dowry. 

The small amulet has large loops through which the cord or chain would pass as it hung on the string of beads and amulets on the wedding day. The same style of loops on the large amulet were even larger and at some time later, they were cut down in a diagonal slice filed smooth and squeezed together to a smaller circumference. This was purposely done. A cord would not have worn the metal in a diagonal direction. Nor would both loops be worn so uniformly. 

These are spectacular chevron designs made by granulated silver meticulously placed in diagonal rows between beaded wire lines. The background is darkened and the Maria Teresa coin silver granules shine softly against the dark background. 

These amulets make a very special addition to a collection. 

Measurements: 
Large amulet dimensions - 1.3 inch (34 mm) diameter x 4.2 inches (10.7 cm) length (not including loops)
Small amulet dimensions - 1 inch (25 mm) diameter x 3.2 inches (8 cm) length (no including loops)

There is more Judaica from Yemen at this special section of my shop. 

The Maker's Mark is Historical Information

A few weeks ago, I sold a bridal dowry amulet or hirz from my collection.  It was signed by the maker, as so many of the finely made hirzes are.  The maker's  name was Ebrahem Saleh.  Here is a photo of that particular amulet.  The gallery did not store a photo of the signature, but this is the very amulet that Ebrahem Saleh signed after making it some time before the 1940's when all the silversmiths emigrated from Yemen to Israel.

Antique Yemen Silver Amulet Signed by Maker Ebraheem Saleh - in gallery of sold items

Just this week, I found another interesting Yemen silver hirz when I was rummaging through another box of such amulets from Yemen, which I consider to be important pieces of Judaica .  My website has a special section for the Yemen Jewish silversmith work, all made before they emigrated from Yemen to Israel in the 1940s.  This amulet, too, is made by someone named Saleh.  This one is signed by Yahia Saleh: 

Antique Yemen Amulet Signed by Maker Yahia Saleh from Fine Collection - listed for sale

If the silversmiths signed their names with the family name first, then there may not be a genetic relationship between the two men, but if they signed their names as English speakers would sign, with the family name last, then there probably was a family relationship.  Their designs are very similar, as you can see.  The horizontal beaded wire strips between rows of diamond shapes and florets with almost identical decorative ends and the same shape of bails or loops for hanging the amulets.  This would lead me to believe that they were working in the same shop in the Sana'a region of Yemen.  

What do you think?  Your comments are invited. 

See more antique silver jewelry HERE. 

Antique Silver Bedihi Beads from Yemen

The century old Mediterranean red coral beads are the natural accompaniment to the numerous silver Bedihi beads on this fine necklace from Yemen.  In the market place the same beads are called berry beads, especially the small ones.

Antique Rare Silver Bedihi Berry and Coral Beaded Necklace from Yemen 

Veronica Wainstein is the owner of arabiafelixjewels and an expert on Yemen jewelry.  From her I learned that  'The Bedihi family was one of the most famous of Yemeni Jewish jewellers in the last two centuries. Their exquisite granulation work, the berry beads and the dugag cylinder beads show the expertise of these jewellers. The main dugag beads are all hallmarked by the artist. All Yemeni  jewels  hallmarked are from before 1940.'

The detailed granulation in the beads that seem to be built drop by drop with a lot of open space showing even in the small beads.  This allows the beads to make a strong impact without being too heavy for comfort.  

The pendant shaped as a crown with the dangles is capped with a larger Bedihi bead and there are two more on the side strings of coral and Bedihi beads.  The crown shaped pendant is an ornament usually worn hanging from the headband or head covering; a pair of such ornaments hang on each side of the face.  

Coral beads, Bedihi beads and often the beautiful Bawsani beads hang by the pound on a bride wearing her dowry on her wedding day.  The wedding jewelry will probably also include some dugag beads that are usually signed by the maker.  They are large hollow globe beads that wear so beautifully and develop a fine patina.  See an example here: 

Antique Yemen Silver Bead Pendant Signed by Silversmith   

Necklaces, head covers, earrings, bracelets, armlets worn above the elbow, rings on all the fingers and even on her toes tax the brides in wealthy families with a heavy burden on her wedding day.  No wonder we always see her seated in the wedding pictures. 

Here is a detailed view of the necklace above: 

Available at CraftsofthePast studio

I invite you to visit the studio and see this and the other Judaica available there. 

Judaica - the Material Objects and the Spiritual Meanings

The classification 'Judaica' refers to things related to the Judean culture from its establishment in ancient times up to the present.  Naturally the things of the material culture such as the menorah, the mezuzah and the kippah are easily recognized by those outside the Jewish religion.  These material objects also carry spiritual meaning as well as being art objects.  The mezuzah carried written prayers and blessings.  The menorah was a part of the ancient tabernacle that the prophet Moses set up.  It is still used in both Jewish synagogues and Christian churches.  The kippah is a head covering that is often beautifully decorated with geometric shapes in fancy needlework for school boys and brides, in particular.  It implies a dedication to a certain way of life.

Filigree pendant worn by Yemen brides on their kirdan or bridal dowry necklaces

In addition to these common modern objects, there exists among certain Jewish communities in diaspora beautiful traditional jewelry and clothing that are quite distinctive and are growing quite rare at present.  As an example in my own experience is this antique mezuzah, also called a hirz, q'tub or amulet.  They are always worn as a pendant either sewn to the clothing or strung on a cord or chain to be worn.  For example in the community of Jews in Yemen in the early 1900s, Jewish brides wore amulets such as this one:

Antique Yemen Yemenite Silver Signed Amulet Hirz Kutub Pendant

Here is a fuller explanation of some of my Yemen jewelry collection or the Yemenite Judaica at the site linked here:

 This amulet is decorated with dangles with small bell like beads attached. This amulet was once worn by at least one Yemeni bride as part of her dowry and then again at the birth of each of her children. It would have hung on a multi-strand kirdan, a bib or yoke strung with large silver hollow beads, amber or coral beads, and as many as six of small hirzes with one large amulet or hirz hanging from a matching plaque. 

Dowries are still a part of the marriage arrangement between the two families that are being joined through the union of bride and groom. The amulets contained the prayers or scriptures that symbolized the sanctity of the union. 

From the mid-1800s to the early 1900s, such amulets were created from silver that was melted down either from Maria Teresa thalers or from jewelry that belonged to the previous generation. The prospective groom was expected to bring a hefty bit of silver to the bride. This was in turn melted and refashioned into silver beads and amulets, bracelets, hair ornaments, anklets and rings for Yemen brides to wear as their wedding finery. 

This custom also provided them a dowry, their store of silver to give them security, as their dowry was their own property. Silver in the form of beautiful jewelry also gave the woman status among her peers. She was not always the only woman in a household. And of course, the load of silver jewelry adorning her from the top of her head to the tip of her toes made her even more beautiful on her wedding day. Poorer brides simply rented the wedding finery from jewelers who kept wedding jewelry on hand. 

The bride would have worn this amulet as a blessing and a prayer for her health, safety and happiness. Since this is a relatively small amulet, it probably hung on a cord with other amulets, one being the large one that opened to insert the actual prayers.

Because the Yemen Jewish community emigrated to Israel in the early 1900s, there are no more such pieces being created in Yemen. 

Such rare items provide very special focal pieces for jewelry designers or are sold individually as I am offering this one. With organic beads such as amber, coral, horn, bone, wood and shells they fit in with ethnic designs very well. It is also spectacular when strung with lapis, turquoise or carnelian, obsidian and smaller silver bead separators. 

Such an amulet is very distinctive worn alone on this silver chain, though the chain was manufactured in modern times. 

Measurements: 
Length of Chain - 18 inches - 45.6 cm
Dimensions of Pendant - 1 x 2.75 inches - 2.5 cm x 7 cm