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Description

Silver amulet holder necklace or head ornament; decorated with circular and triangular gold plates and carnelians throughout. Main pendant consists of a hollow rectangle-like tube with a triangle on top. Tube has cylindrical protrusions on either side and strands of bells hanging along the bottom edge; triangle topped with a pronged finial. Similar prong shapes on either side of triangle with rings along top edge, for necklace chain to hook to. Chain has six decorative charms; three on either side. Four carnelians sit in raised bezels on main pendant and one on each charm. Gold plates are decorated with floral, linear, and dot motifs; designs are stamped on. Back of amulet is undecorated.

History Of Use

This triangular amulet holder dates from the late 19th–early 20th century, and was crafted for women. It can be worn as a necklace, or as one of a pair of ornaments worn at the back of the head, attached to braided plaits. Turkmen tradition holds that the wearing of the materials used to craft this jewelry are beneficial to human health and possess magical powers. Silver is believed to bring healing and protective qualities to the wearer . Carnelian stones bring abundance, happiness and peace to the household and the owner/wearer of the jewellery is protected from the evil eye. An auspicious prayer, written on a piece of paper by a priest, can be rolled up and slipped into the amulet through the hollow ends of the triangular pendant. Jewellry was used as a way to establish rank and was worn by all ranks of Turkmen society -- mostly for women, but there are also pieces created specifically for men, and for horses and camels. The wearing of precious stones is thought to increase the fertility of young women. Adornments for children are often sewn onto their clothing to ward off disease and the evil eye. Young women tend to wear large amounts of jewelry on their heads, necks, braids and clothing. The maximum amount of jewelry is worn at the age of marriage, then as women age the amount decreases.

Narrative

The Turkmen family who owned this amulet holder have their traditional village in the Balkh/Herat area. In the early 1990s, an Afghani Turkmen patriarch and household head, Hamiddullah Nazari, moved his family out of war torn Afghanistan to Istanbul, Turkey andy established a shop featuring Turkmen arts and crafts in Istanbul’s Grand Bazar. Hamiddullah returns to Afghanistan several times a year to collect jewellery and other Turkmen cultural objects to sell in his store. The donor met Hamiddullah Nazari in 2004 in Istanbul and purchased the necklace from his shop.

Specific Techniques

The very decorative style of this amulet is typical of the Yomut (or Yamut, Yomud) Turkmen group. The main pendant (the hollow, triangular part), is fashioned from low carat (German) silver and embellished with silver and gold gilded “stamped beading”, applied to the hollow base. Four “table cut”, carnelians sit in raised bezels, as well as one carnelian on each on the six “punched” beads. At the bottom of the main pendant are five gold gilded flower stamped beads, attached to silver links, that each attach to a pair of traditional Turkmen silver beads. The two-pronged designs represent the horns of the mountain ram, an animal considered sacred by Turkmen groups. The technique of granulation appears on the edges of the upper portion of the pendant.