Featured Family Heirloom from Italy, No Markings, Silver & Stones

Hello to all you wise and wonderful lovers of old (people as well as "stuff")
My second posting, and this is a piece that my grandmother brought with her from Italy, 1892. She lived in Bologna, as did her family for centuries! We know nothing more than the fact that she carried it across the ocean. I have googled Etruscan, and found many silver pieces that look very similar, but also pieces from other parts of the world. When I look up very very close, the workmanship looks more Italian. More finished. But I am here to get input and possible ID. Top Question, what is the stone? I have included very close up pics of the stones to aid in ID. The piece is over 32 inches in total at the longest piece so I did one photo to try to show it off. NOT easy as the size is challenging. I can take more photos if anyone needs. Thank you in advance for any help or comments you can offer.

 

Might the stone be a jasper?

 

To me that design looks more Near Eastern than Italian. There's no reason it couldn't have fetched up in Italy, maybe from Iraq or Afghanistan. A lot of those are also made with old coins.

 

The dangles look like Indian nautch dancer bells.

 

Thank you and you know, I saw a lot of that too. But, close up, the details don't look the same as the Eastern pieces, not saying it might not be. I am stumped. The other thing is the "charms" or hanging bits. They do not match the items I find from the Eastern countries. The strangest thing is that the charms look much like Catholic symbols. There are similar looking pieces used in the Catholic religious services made of different metals! Going with your observation, I'll keep following the Afghanistan idea!! Off to google, Thank you SO much!

 

Thank you! I'll go look that up now!

 

I will go search that and see what I find!! Thank you very much!

 

Try Yemen as well. The central pendant looks Yemeni, and the Yemen traded a lot with Italy - Mocha coffee in exchange for Italian coral.
Yemen was once a real silver country and a trade hub between India, the horn of Africa, the Arab world and Europe.

 

Thank you, and I'm excited to see if any of these fit. I see why the suggestion of Afghan and Nautch dancers was made. I have just spent a half hour scouring the web and it is almost impossible to find actual Nautch Dancer Jewelry to compare but the photos, albeit often fuzzy, do depict the extremely ornate pieces. The Afghan pieces I have seen have different details when examined close up. So, off I go to see about Yemeni. Wonderful pool of knowledge here. Thank you very much for your time and input!

 

Those dangles crop up all over the place from Morocco to India. It doesn't read like Berber jewelry to me, but beyond that... have fun digging. This is the best Nautch dancer photo I saw.

 

Here are some details of antique Yemeni jewellery.
The first picture shows several upside down teardrop dangles like your two central pendants. The earrings on the left have little floral discs like your necklace, and Italian coral beads, the pendant on the right has plain silver discs like on your central pendants.
The second picture shows the Yemen style bells, which are almost closed balls, unlike Indian bells which are usually more open, split in two distinct halves. Yemen bells often have a little collar between the bell and the ring. Your bells look Yemeni to me. Above the bells more floral discs.

These details, along with the strong historic connection between Italy and Yemen, make me think of Yemen as the origin of your necklace.

 

A little extra from our shop: a result of the Italy-Yemen trade connection, an antique silver gilt and Italian coral Yemeni necklace (including bells and plain discs on the dangles).


https://www.etsy.com/shop/samarkandrose

 

OH my goodness!!! YES!!! You have addressed the problem I kept having. The majority of the Indian and Afghani pieces had "different" details. Hence, the open balls. I kept finding the tiny "winded" detailing, with twisted wires looking nothing like the heavier and less detailed looks of my piece. The charms just looked "different" Now, looking at the close up of the Yemen pieces, particularly the bottom piece with the coral beads, really looks like a member of the same family. Thank you SO much!

 

Glad to have been of help.
I think your stones could be amazonite. It is used in Yemen jewellery and fades when it gets older. Here is my favourite Yemeni necklace, late 19th century, with amazonite beads:

The picture was taken before I repaired the squashed silver bead, bottom left. It looks better now.

 

Good Morning! Wow, you really have a handle on this eastern pieces. Your collection is amazing. I have been perusing your store. Interestingly, I saw your "glass/coral" bead necklace and I have one very similar and wondered if it might be coral. Mine is more orange/salmon than red, but under a strong loop, the beads look different than regular glass seed beads. Thank you SO much. What a help you have been. I will go look up the stone and see. The color is very pale compared to yours. But, this necklace is at least from 1890 and that is assuming my great grandmother got it within a year of traveling to the United States to immigrate. Which I find unreal. She was so so poor. I imagine it was older and given to her by a relative or friend before she left as a gift. My family, in Italy, was a poor family and lived in a very modest home, that had been theirs for over one hundred years, lived in generation after generation! My mom traveled there and looked up our history in the local Catholic church. It keeps all the deaths, births and marriages for the town. Ironic that the information is helping me ID a piece of jewelry. But, it adds to the provenance. Again thank you so very much! I'm TossedAndTarnished on Etsy if you want to see some of the eclectic, if not bizarre mix I have inherited and listed. : )

 

Maybe the necklace was a treasured piece, given to your great-grandmother for her to sell if she ever needed to. Just think of the culture shock it must have been for her, and how anxious those left behind would have been about her well-being in that faraway place. And maybe she would rather have gone without food for a day, than sell something that reminded her of home and was given with such love. Migration in those days was a huge and lonely endeavour, no airplanes, phones, internet.

Your shop is nice, I like eclectic.
We now have two Etsy shops, one for ethnic and one with period styles. It began with my mothers stuff, she started me on Yemeni jewellery, but had some nice Modernist pieces as well.
By the way, did you see the Indonesian Yogyakarta orchid brooch? https://www.etsy.com/nl/listing/292894039/yogya-800-silver-orchid-brooch?ref=shop_home_active_5 Looks familiar? I can assure you it is truly Yogya, we see those brooches regularly here because Indonesia was once a Dutch colony. I gave a link with a list of Yogya workshop marks including PE in the other thread, but here it is again:
http://www.djokja.nl/werkplaatsen.html
It is in Dutch, but here is some information on Yogya silver in English:
http://www.925-1000.com/a_yogya.html

 

Hi there and thank you for the additional info. I love the way you think, The way you described my GGmother's possible experience is how I think everytime I hold "Old" antique items. I wonder......what was your experience, you, the original or previous owner" and I have a few things from that side of the family. A pair of earrings that have what I believe to be faceted glass, an old sterling bracelet, that has no markings but was a prize of my mom's. It was my grandmother's sister, who was a wild bohemian in the 20s!!! We have a wonderful shot of her sitting in a one piece bathing suit, a one piece like today, sitting on a rock by a river. WAY wild for her era. Her name was Aunt Peggy and was a school teacher, never married and died of Strepp Throat at only 40 years of age. So, who knows where her items came from. And, thank you for the additional information, I did see the thread about the Orchid Brooch. I should send you the pages with the markings that made me believe it came from Italy, aside from the fact of the family heritage. At the 33.00 price I see it listed at, I'll pull mine and keep it: )Again, you are amazing to "meet" and I can't thank you enough for all your help.