Featured Origins of Necklace

Love this necklace I bought recently very cheaply (cheapskate me!). Sadly I can’t find any markings anywhere.
Any ideas of origin or era?
I loved it just for the style but to my surprise every bit tests as silver which is always a happy bonus!

 

It is a modern take on traditional Himalayan jewellery, probably a craft piece. The big beads are made in the Himalayan region.
Nice and wearable with an ethnic feel.

The amber could be imitation, but it is always worth testing it. If you have a UV light, that is a start. Amber is fluorescent.
On this site is a step by step identification guide, we don't advise invasive methods:
http://ethnicjewelsmagazine.com/the-identification-of-amber-and-its-copies/

Certain types of faux amber are also collectible btw.

 

I haven't got a UV light but I'm not too worried either way as it's not going anywhere although it's always interesting to know. Not sure it is amber- could they be some sort of stone with the stripes?. Feels cool to touch but not really cold. Feels too hard to be amber ( but then I'm not sure I've ever handled real amber!)
That's a great link though. I'm not going to scratch test as there isn't anywhere hidden to do it because of the end caps.

 

Probably too cold to be amber. Most recent Himalayan beads are faux amber. Making faux amber beads is like a cottage industry in some places. They are handmade, which accounts for the differences in colour. I haven't seen many dark amber beads, like your central one.

 

I think some sort of stone? Agate was mentioned in that link- does it come in these colours?

 

Agate comes in many natural colours and can be dyed. It is really cold, like most stones. But these look like nice quality faux amber to me.

 

To me too. Beads of this type have come up before & I showed these then:


I bought them at a bead store owned by a man who also has a gallery of ethnographic art. He represented them to me as early faux amber & they were part of a collection he had bought entire from someone who had been using 'hill silver' beads & pendants from the Himalayan countries in her own jewellery making. They do not fluoresce under UV light.

Your necklace looks to me like the same sort of thing: modern assembly of vintage components. The way the ends are finished, with French wire, a crimp & a spring ring, is not consistent with vintage Himalayan work.

 

They are nearly identical Bronwen!. I've only got a tiny UV light but no sign of fluorescence.
Can I be really dumb and ask what faux amber is made from? I'm presuming probably not put together in the UK where it is now.
Is Hill Silver another term for low silver quality?

 

Nothing really dumb about your question. My answer is dumber: I don't know. Plastics have their own rich history. There must have been all sorts of recipes for polymers in addition to names we know, like Celluloid, Bakelite, Galalith... Some version of Galalith seems probable, since the fundamental component is milk:

https://www.ganoksin.com/article/galalith-jewelry-milk-stone/

Think @Any Jewelry can correctly explain the use of the term 'hill silver'. It was tossed around a bit loosely at the bead store, where it seemed to mean silver of unknown quality of uncertain Asian origin used in 'ethnic' beads.

 

Bronwen, do your beads feel stone like or warm?. I tapped them against my teeth and they do feel like stone rather than a plastic of some sort.
'Hill Silver'= Any old scraps chucked back in the melting pot!
Galalith sounds delightful

 

The Hmong are very particular about the silver they use,it needs to have a certain tone when it is tapped with another piece.When they lived in Laos it was usually French colonial coins with a 900 silver content.

 

They are cool, smooth & hard, but not quite as cool as stone sitting in the same room & clunk against the teeth while the stone clinks, i.e., by comparison, a somewhat duller sound than the stone gives.

 

Nothing dumb about asking questions.
Faux amber can be made from anything, from bakelite to melted old plastic buckets. The last method is used a lot in Moroccan villages, and the beads are sought after by collectors of ethnic jewellery. Bakelite 'amber' is very collectible and quite expensive. I have a necklace of Tibetan handmade faux amber, but I have no idea what it was made of.

Hill silver or Hill Tribe silver is high grade silver made by the Hill Tribes of Thailand through a government funded program to advance the economic situation of the Thai Hill Tribes. Their silver is often .950, so a higher silver content than sterling.
Your beads are not made by the Hill Tribes, but are Himalayan made. As far as I know the Hill Tribes have never made Himalayan style jewellery, or anything with faux amber. They are purely silversmiths.

The Hill Tribes as a whole are spread over several Southeast Asian countries, including part of China. The Hmong, which Holly mentioned, are among the many Hill Tribes of SE Asia. The best known Hill Tribe of Thailand are the Akha.