Featured Coral necklace need help please

I have a Victorian red coral necklace which my mama bought me when I was a baby. An old tradition that girl children should have a crucifix and chain and a coral necklace.

 

OBB, very interesting and nice habit, thank you for sharing!

Here in the past babies (both girls and boys) were given a small golden Ottoman coin for good luck, and also a small blue bead to protect them from bad eyes, but after the communists came, these traditions were abandoned as superstitious and not compatible with the new morale. Babies here were not even baptised during communist times, it was not officially forbidden but could lead to undesirable consequences so people either did not do it or did it secretly and without much noise about it. After 1990 people started reviving the old traditions but very slowly and not at the extent they used to be.

 

The corals were good luck or protection from illness. the Evil Eye, or some such. Same idea. I think the blue bead and the Ottoman coin both migrated north from Turkey or Greece, both of whom have glass "eye" beads made for the same purpose.

 

I found a coral necklace recently in a consignment shop — loved the shape and the salmon color.. I restrung it with some other coral beads I had from another necklace to make a bracelet.. which I had gotten to match a ring I picked up at an auction. Now need a necklace or the makings of a necklace!

 

Keep your eyes peeled and wait; it'll show up sooner or later.

 

True, Ruth, the idea is the same only the means of its manifestation are different matching the local circumstances. In our part of the world there is no coral to be found around and it had to be imported, and thus it would have been too expensive for most people to use it as protection or amulet. So people adjusted to the circumstances.

The blue bead and the Ottoman coin migrated from Turkey/Ottoman Empire, as both Greece and Bulgaria were its colonies for hundreds of years (450 for Greece and 500 for Bulgaria) and thus accepted many habits from the Ottomans.
Although Greeks might not admit it but this is the historical truth, like it or not.

The only exception is the religion - after some forcible conversion to Islam in the initial years of conquest (around years 1400-1450) for the rest of the period Bulgarians (and Greeks, and Serbians, and Macedonians, and all the rest in the empire) were left to practice Christianity. It was done for a very practical reason - in the Ottoman Empire only non Muslims paid taxes, so the state had every interest to have as many non-Muslims as possible in order to collect more taxes Money, money...

There are also many other similarities common for the entire Balkans. I mean that these 400-500 years of being colonised cannot pass by without significant traces in the language, culture, habits and cuisine (BGs, Greeks, Macedonians, Serbians, etc., have a lot of same or similar dishes with the Turks in our traditional cuisine).

 

In North Africa coral was connected with women's ailments.
In Zeeland, SW Netherlands, red coral was worn against anemia. Which is also often a women's condition, for obvious reasons.
Judging from the rows of coral beads they wore, I can't imagine any Zeeuws lady suffered from anemia.

 

Kate Q, very nice pieces, especially the salmon color is indeed fabulous! Congrats for the finds and for the assembling work you have done!
Can't you make a matching necklace from the beads left from the two former necklaces, or they are not enough?

 

You made it into a cute set, love the triple strings in the bracelet, great job.
The red coral beads are dyed sponge coral, from China or the Philippines. The cab in the ring also looks like dyed sponge coral, but I could be wrong, the pics are small.

The salmon coloured beads also look dyed to me, difficult to see in such a small pic though. The necklace they came from suggests dyed too.

 

Thank you for sharing, Any, it is indeed interesting to learn about different habits and customs in other countries. I would relate anemia, apart from the typical women's monthly blood drains, also to the poor conditions of living in the past and the bad nutrition.

Well, it seems to me (as a practical gnostic) that the good health of Zeeuws ladies depended more on the rich nutrition and better living conditions rather than the coral protection, but who knows, maybe also corals helped them. But these two seem to be correlated - if they could afford to wear so much coral they were wealthy enough to keep healthier style of living, which in turn contributed to their good health. Correlation without causality

 

In general, Zeeland has always been a very rich province. Fertile soil and overseas trade.
At one time also slave trade. I believe the chamber of Middelburg (the capital) was the first in the Low Countries to take over slave trading from the Portuguese. The chamber of Amsterdam soon followed, transporting greater numbers of people.

 

That explains both the multiple coral strands worn by Zeeuws ladies and their good health. The underlying cause of both is wealth.

Yes, well, at that time it was not considered something bad. Many nations did it.

We, Bulgarians, at that time were "slaves" ourselves. But we, too, have some later sins although maybe not so big but still sins - when USSR invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968, there were BG troops and tanks in Prague. Much later, when asked why BG troops were there, the most prominent BG general, and minister of defence during communism, answered simply "that was the time" (free translation) meaning that it was not only normal but even considered good at that time no matter how it is judged now. I am the last person to justify and accept slavery or communist dictatorship but indeed the judgement depends strongly on the time during which it is made.

The more important thing is that we, as humankind, develop morally and socially, and reassess past events, and try to compensate somehow, and to be better people. Or maybe I am too naive to think so.....

 

And to go back to the topic of coral - I found a coral ring to match the necklace but as far as I can tell, it is dyed bright red and not genuine salmon Med coral. So the search continues
Looks to me hand made, silver or at least silver color (not tested, no marks), and needs a good cleaning. I gave up the idea of cleaning by vinegar and soda as the coral cab will be destroyed by vinegar (as far as I know). Will wait until I have sunshine cloth.
Will be grateful for any corrections of my judgement. Thank you for looking and commenting!

 

Reply later.

 

Oh, sure, Any, thank you, no rush and not so important anyway. I was just inspired by Katy's ring which is a very beautiful one, aesthetically, IMO, regardless of its potential value

 

It is a Bedouin ring imo.
There is something unusual about it though, usually they are set with large turquoises. If they are set with coral, the coral is generally smaller than this one, making the top smaller too.
They often use coral beads, set on their side, and the bead hole shows or is mounted with a silver flower or bead.
They only use Mediterranean red coral, the truly red variety.

 

Any, thank you so much!
Wow, a genuine Bedouin ring, this is indeed very good news, I am glad that I failed this test

To be honest, the ring looked to me also unusual, somehow promising and very different from what is usually found here but I don't feel confident enough to make proper assessment. I tried to find anything similar through Google lens but there was nothing. It is quite heavy, 12 grams, the cab itself measures approx 1,8 x 1,2 cm on the top surface, domed and it stands at about 0,5 cm above the bezel while the whole top (cab and bezel, and the twisted wire around) measures 1,2 cm high. No holes are visible, if any, they must be hidden in the bezel. It fits my middle finger so I assume it is lady's ring. It looks very beautiful on my finger, although I usually prefer lighter, more delicate rings with smaller tops. But this one is truly beautiful.

I examined the coral under magnifying glass and could not find evidences of dying, neither did the acetone test, but it is very intensively bright red so I assumed that it must be dyed. So it is naturally red Med coral, so happy to know it!

How old do you think it is? I see some age in it, and if so, I may reassess my intension to clean it from the patina.

Thank you so much for your help and for sharing your vast knowledge!

 

No there won't be any holes.
I wasn't very clear in my explanation, sorry about that.
This ring is different from the traditional ones. Traditional Bedouin coral rings are set with coral beads, which are smaller than your cab. Rings with large stones are generally set with turquoises.
This makes me think that yours was probably originally set with a large turquoise, which was replaced with a coral cab.
You can see a small gap on one side. This could be where the original stone was prised out. Maybe it was broken.

Natural coral can be bright red, even a very intense dark red. Think of the amazing colours of coral reefs. Nature is wonderful.

The ring looks 1960s-70s. The cab is probably a replacement, so later.

The patina will stay even if you clean it, as long as you don't use anything abrasive.
The dark 'stuff' is either dirt or artificially blackened, I think the latter.
To me the silver looks fine as it is. If you want it shinier, you can use a sunshine cloth.
Jewellery like this shouldn't be overly polished, it will lose its character if it is.

 

Thank you, Any, for you detailed explanation and insights! It is indeed amazing how well you know the matter to very small details and how easily you find explanations to all apparent mismatches!
Yes, there is a gap on the one side of the ring, I was thinking it was just a manufacturing flaw although it looked a bit strange as the ring looks quite well done overall. Your suggestion fits well and explains it. Probably the original stone was broken and the ring was repaired with the coral cab.
I understand that natural coral can be amazingly beautiful, I was assuming that such beautiful natural coral must be too expensive to end up in my hoard But luckily this seems to be the case.

Thank you!!!

 

You're welcome, Iva.

Just one more thing: Sometimes coral is coated. In that case the acetone test doesn't work.
If you place a small drop of lemon juice on the cab, and it starts to bubble, you have perfectly natural coral. If it doesn't bubble, it is coated.