In jewelry, the Arabian Peninsula retained very old traditions with remarkable fidelity. In Yemen, in particular, this can be explained by the fact that the practice was solely the preserve of the Jewish population, among whom the art was passed from father to son. This necklace is of a well-known type that was presented to a girl once she reached the marriage age. These necklaces always have parallel rows of small beads joined by rectangular plaques (here, there is one central plaque set with green glass) and with triangular endpieces decorated in filigree. Amulet cases are suspended from the lowest strand of beads; on this example, there are three amulet cases, and a star-shaped pendant hangs from the central one. Techniques remained traditional too. The shot-constructed beads in this example are most directly a survival from medieval Islamic times, but can be traced even farther back.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Necklace
Date:19th century
Geography:Made in Yemen
Medium:Silver
Dimensions:H. 8 11/16 in. (22 cm) W. 10 5/8 in. (27 cm) D. 3/8 in. (0.9 cm)
Classification:Jewelry
Credit Line:Edward C. Moore Collection, Bequest of Edward C. Moore, 1891
Object Number:91.1.1126
Silver Necklace
Another region that, like India, has retained very old traditions with remarkable fidelity is the Arabian Peninsula. This fine example of a well-represented type suggests that certain elements that have survived from medieval Islamic times have combined with other elements to yield a newly orchestrated form.
Probably the most interesting single feature, present also on other pieces of the same type (e.g., MMA 91.1.1127 and MMA 91.1.1136), is that of the shot-constructed bead, seen here in great profusion. We have already observed two types of shot-constructed configuration, on earrings MMA nos. 52.4.5,.6 and 1980.541.9,.10. Another jewelry type in which such configurations appear is from the region of Bukhara in the nineteenth century[1]
The tradition of shot construction can be traced back at least to Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt. The socalled Treasure of the Three Princesses, reportedly found at Wadi Gabbanet al-Qirud, Thebes, apparently contained several thousand tiny rings, each consisting of five shot (MMA 26.8.62; Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo). Although there appear to be few extant examples of shot construction from the long interval between Early Dynastic Mesopotamia and New Kingdom Egypt, an uninterrupted tradition seems likely, if only on the basis of a single ringlet excavated at Ur.[2] A further perspective on the early history of closely packed shot construction is provided by consideration of the stacking of hollow gold balls into geometric configurations in Early Iron Age northwest Iran and in the Urartrean culture.[3] It is notable that the tradition of hollow-ball stacking did not continue, while that of stacked shot did; by classical Greek and Roman times stacked shot construction was being used in combination with, among other things, cylindrical and hemispherical sheet construction, as well as simple shot construction, as in our nineteenth-century Yemeni necklace[4] and an early twentieth-century Persian forehead ornament in the National Decorative Art Museum, Tehran.
[Jenkins and Keene 1983]
Footnotes:
1. Jenkins, Marilyn, and Keene, Manuel. "Djawhar." The Encyclopaedia of Islam, supplement to vol. 2, fasc. 3-4. Leiden, 1982, figs. 41a, 41 b; Bokhara, exhibition catalogue. Israel Museum, Jerusalem, 1967, figs. 5 .9, 5.10; Katz, Karl; Kahane, P. P.; and Broshi, Magen. From the Beginning: Archaeology and Art in the Israel Museum, Jerusalem. New York, 1968., fig. 187; Rosenthal, Renate. Jewellery in Ancient Times. London,1973, p. 76, ill. in color.
2. Maxwell-Hyslop, K. R. Western Asiatic Jewellery. London, 1971.
3. Negahban, Ezat 0. Preliminary Report on the Excavations at Marlik. Tehran, 1964, fig. 79; Ghirshman, Roman. The Arts of Ancient Iran. New York, 1964, fig. 27 [from Hasanlu]; Jewelry from Persia: The Collection of Patti Birch, exhibition catalogue. Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim, 1974, nos. 13-15; Urartrean examples in the Archaeological Museum, Ankara).
4. Segall, Berta. Museum Benaki, Katalog der Goldschmiede-Arbeiten. Athens, 1938, no. 90 center; Gerlach, Martin. Volkerschmuck. Vienna and Leipzig [1906]. Reprinted as Primitive and Folk Jewelry. New York, 1971, pl. 102 center.
Edward C. Moore (American), New York (until d. 1891; bequeathed to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Islamic Jewelry in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 22–August 14, 1983, no. 71.
Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn, and Manuel Keene. Islamic Jewelry in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1983. no. 71, p. 128, ill. (b/w).
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