Jewelry Find Help (Ethnic, Plastic, Religious)

Here are some of my recent finds that I'm having trouble pinning down the age and origin. Some of the green plastic beads have barely noticeable seams, while the larger ones do not; there is some white wear to the bead ends and crazing. None of the jewelry is marked. The plane fob/charm appears to be silverplated. The thistle badge thing has two loops soldered on the back, allowing the bobby-pin-shaped pin to be slid through. The amethyst piece isn't a brooch; on the back, it has an enclosed horizontal opening, as if to allow a cord or chain to pass through.

 

The Joolies should have fun with this......
I like the little Jet !!
is that script on the bale of the pendant to the left of it ??

 

The necklace with lapis lazuli inlay is from Afghanistan, I suspect the one next to it is as well.
I'll leave the rest in the capable hands of the other joolies, I just noticed I have a list of 66 alerts.

 

it's good to be Alert........we need more Lerts here !!!!

 

And I am talking A Lert, the serious stuff!
(Breaking forum rules?)

 

Thank you! It's surprisingly heavy and feels like good quality. That isn't script; just the way the light is shining off it, unfortunately.

Thank you! I've been trying to figure out where they're from. Any idea how old the two are? Is there a specific name for them?

 

I'm sorry Owl...but I'll pull a page out of " Ineedhelp's" playbook and say.....I see script here......

 

The whole pendant has this rough embossed veining pattern and I think that's what it is. I looked again at the bale with my loupe and I can't tell if it's writing or just the pattern.

 

gimme a close up......puleeeese..!
i see a clear J.Malortz.....malarts......ok...so it's not THAT clear...

 

Thanks...I see what you mean..........
but I'll be darned if it still doesn't look like script to me !!!

I think I've caught whatever I Need Help has !!!

 

The writing says "wishful thinking". It looks like 1960s brutalist or early 70s. If there was a mark, it was on the missing chain. The pin next to it is what the Brits call shed work - some guy or girl in a jewelry class or home workshop. As for the big necklace, I'd have guessed Turkish instead of Afghan, but those two are interrelated so YMMV. The plastic beads have what looks like late 70s to early 80s findings on them, so that's my guess.

What's got me intrigued are those two cast crucifixes. The kind of look like pewter and may well have some maker's marks on the back. They look like museum shop replicas of really old work.

 

For some reason, I find the pendant vaguely disturbing. It reminds me of H.R. Giger's work.

 

Thank you!

The crucifixes are both either brass or bronze; the light balance was off on my phone, so they look too silver in the photos. No maker's marks on the back or the bales; I looked at them with a loupe. Both came from different vendors; I think one of the vendors might have been Serbian.

 

Those don't look like contemporary Orthodox, but ... coubbe.

 

Any time between the 60s and now. Many of these were brought back by people on the 'Hippie Trail', and have been popular ever since.
I have never heard of a specific name for these necklaces. They were originally bought as investment, nothing to do with amulets or something like that. They are now mostly made for the tourist trade.
They are Pashtun, the main ethnicity of Afghanistan. The Pashto word for necklace is هارون.

 

They are Modernist, and very typical of religious bronze art made in Germany since the 50s. They are still being made.
They could have made their way to Serbia, or the vendor simply got them in Germany. We get them in shops that sell religious themed things here in the Netherlands as well.

Barn, could you post a picture of the other crucifix? It could be antique.
The black beads and crucifix look like a rosary, although it could be a marriage. A rosary crucifix attached to a necklace.
A rosary is not a necklace but a prayer aid. Since the 80s people started wearing them as necklaces. I blame Madonna.

 

The black beaded rosary really does look like a marriage; the crucifix is out of scale to the beads, the metals don't match, and the beads look older. I didn't even give it a second glance for those reasons. The crucifix looks like the kind that used to come in begging letters. Here, we're sending you this nice piece of religious jewelry; please send us some money. They're dirt common here, but then Connecticut is 40% Catholic, or was a few years ago.

 

Agreed. The crucifix is too small.