Featured Tribal Butterscotch Bakelite necklace or else????

Hello again,
I have meet a seller whom showed me the attached neklace. It's not my style, but would like to know more about it, maybe I will change my mind. He has confirmed that is not amber and he thinks that is Bakelite.
@Any Jewelry would you be able to comment on style, age , use or material. What are your thoughts?
Thank you.
Kind regards,
Simona
@kyratango
@KSW
@Ownedbybear
@komokwa U have a feeling you would luke this

 

I wonder if they might be tagua nut? The shape of the larger beads is very suggestive of tagua; and it can be hard to identify, and easily mistaken for other materials.
Compare:

 

at 1st I thought amber......but as Fakes sez......it looks good for Tagua !

 

It doesn't look like bakelite. They're big even for tagua nut, but not impossible.

 

Maybe faturan, most fake faturan is Bakelite so it should be tested for Bakelite with an ammonia based polish or cleaner.
https://www.google.com/search?q=faturan

 

I have been told that a hot niddle test was done on one bead and it smells like plastic, not a natural smell.

 

My guess would have been African pressed copal.

 

I’m not expert on this but pressed copal has been used for decades as an amber wannabe and since it’s made from pressed and molded resin but I believe some has added synthetics, the fact that it smells synthetic IMO doesn’t eliminate copal but it could be any number of things.

 

These are Nepali faux amber beads, similar to Moroccan faux amber beads.
That twisted crochet-look thread is typical of Nepali necklaces.

Moroccan Berber women make faux beads by melting plastic buckets and adding the right colour pigments. The Nepalis and Tibetans do something similar, which is why a hot needle test smells of exactly that, plastic.
I posted a video on the forum once, I'll see if I can find it.

 

Yes, the beads commonly sold as African (pressed) copal are actually resin.
They are German-made phenolic resin beads from the 1920s and 30s, mostly made for the African market, some coral coloured, but most were amber coloured.
Those beads are also found in the gorgeous long chunky bead necklaces European 'Bohemian' ladies wore during the Art Deco period.

The correct term for phenolic resin is phenol-formaldehyde thermosetting resin, but that is quite a mouthful.

@Simona Buhus , I can't find the 'Moroccan ladies melting plastic for beads' video.

 

Thank you so much, I will do some research on it, just for myself, and update the seller with the comments. This is not something that I would normally buy, but am sure that all the details you have given me will help him sell it. I hope it will go to someone whom really appreciate it.
Thank you all.
Xx

 

I just edited my first reply about the Nepali beads, which is what the ones you posted are. They are made in a similar way to the Moroccan beads.
Post #9, so not the one you quoted, which was a reply to reader's post.

Just to recap, the beads are from Nepal, not from Germany or Africa.

Unfortunately for the seller these faux amber beads are not worth nearly as much as bakelite.

 

Faux amber...?
Huh...I was kinda on the right track at the outset..........
good call AJ !!!!!

 

Reader was pretty close too.