Featured What can you tell me about my bracelet? Middle Eastern? North African? 20th? 19th? 18th??

Picked this beauty up at an estate sale a couple weeks ago. I felt like I may have been overpaying at $50 but I was enamored by its beauty. The owner had a lot of pre-Columbian and other very old stuff, some quite nice so I felt like taking a chance on this. Interesting clasp style which didn’t show up well in photo. Not sure what the stone is, it’s black or dark green. Thought maybe onyx but not sure thats it. The square with the filigree and stone may be a low purity silver but I haven’t tested it. I have a lot to learn when it comes to antique jewelry so wanted to get some opinions. Can anyone help me pinpoint where and when it may be from? Bedouin?

 

My gut feel is India/Nepal/Tibet. Can you show it open please?

 

I think Malaysia, 19th century. The combination of Indian influenced repoussé scrolls and filigree with little mirror discs looks very Malaysian.
What is the inside diameter?
You think the filigree part could be silver, what is the other material, brass?
And I would love to see it open too.

I would have bought it too, if it fits me, that is.

Bedouin (nomadic) jewellery is usually rather chunky, not much detail, and a good grade of silver for investment.

 

Here it is “open”. It really just loosened up a little. I don’t want to stretch it further but it probably can be pulled apart wider to slip on.

 

Malaysian would make more sense based on the small bit of the picture I got at the sale. Not sure if you saw my post a couple weeks back on the Kris Swords/daggers. They were most Filipino. Turns out the man who owned all the items had a Filipino father or a father who lived in the Philippines. I’m guessing he lived there early 20th or late 19th Century. I overheard part of a story where he would pick up antiques off of trucks that were driven around the country. I assume they would roll through the villages and buy old stuff from poor villagers and then hawk it in the cities. Anyways he had a good amount of very old stuff from the Philippines including a lot of church related items. It would make sense for the bracelet to come from this part of the world.

Inside diameter just a smidge under 2.25”. I assumed it was brass but upon further inspection it’s a thin layer of metal formed over and inner base. Possibly vermeil outer layer? Not sure what type of materials they used. The inner base may be copper or brass?

It was priced at $150 but it was the very end of the day, I had bought a bunch of other stuff, I have a good relationship with the sale runner, and I’m sure he knew that was high number for an estate sale.

Edit: btw I posted new photos in reply to first request.

Edit 2: oh and the stone or glass is definitely green not black.

 

you're taking photo's on a glass showcase......is it yours or from the sale...cuz I'm seeing interesting pieces that look like Haida argillite and Inuit carvings ??????

 

That’s a box of carvings I picked up over the weekend at auction. There’s some nice soapstone and ivory carvings. The argillite I assumed wasn’t real because I picked up a similar totem the weekend before that seemed like some type ceramic like material. Now that you mentioned it I took it or for the first time and it’s possible it is the real deal. It feels and looks a little too clean to be stone but I’ll have to look into it more. It does have a good weight like slate would. If it is argillite I hit the jackpot without even knowing it. There’s an old piece of masking tape on the bottom unfortunately thats Uber stuck on. If there was any signature it’s under that but there doesn’t appear to be which also makes me think it may be a composite material of some type. I’ll need to remove that cleanly somehow.

Then there’s two Bomba pieces again leading to believe it the totem may be a replica.

I am going to need your expertise at some point on some dolls I picked up. A large batch I picked up were labeled as being Coeur d’Alene out of Wisconsin. Then I got another small one over the weekend I don’t know much about. Also for a small lot of seeds and beads over the weekend, a beaded gourd container, a lot of pottery shards, pipe pieces and other random artifacts. Then the thing I’m most excited about is some voucher books from Montana Indian territory. I haven’t gotten a chance to look over any of this yet but on the dolls especially I would like to get your opinion.

 

I'm sure you'll get ....all our opinions !!

Ya...one Boma can lead to another Boma !!!!

 

Probably called Boma-itis Boma-losous

 

You hit it on the head! Nicely done! The Maranao people live on the island of Mindanao. They are Muslim and known as “the people of the lake”. Looks like they made this bracelet! Others like it were made in the late 1800’s it seems. Not a lot of them out there on google but here’s a working link with a cool story. http://ethnicjewels.ning.com/m/photo?id=5416612:Photo:386775

Thanks!

 

Wonderful, inh! Maranao makes sense. The people and culture(s) of Mindanao are closely related to Malay people and culture, and Sabah, Malaysia, is its closest neighbour.
I have found some more of these bracelets, none of them as nice as yours, @J Dagger. All of them have a glass 'stone', so I expect yours is glass too.

 

so, maybe $50....not such an overpay after all....