ArtFire

Yemen antique silver and coral necklace with a dome-shaped focal element. Nine pendants hang from the silver and filigree dome. The bead chain alternates granulated granulated metal separators that glisten golden in their highlights as if they are either a brass based metal or they are silver and have a gold wash. The coral beads are very fine old natural coral. The chain and fastener are hand made in Yemen, also.
This piece was once a part of a bridal dowry. Their bridal dowry was not our traditional hope chest. In Yemen in 1900, all brides received bride wealth, both from their husband (given to the father of the bride) and from their own family. When the marriage contract was agreed upon, the groom would give the agreed upon amount of silver to the father of the bride. Then the father would add to that amount what he could give to the daughter. He would take that amount of silver to the Yemen Jewish silversmith to be made into beautifully worked jewelry.

The silversmith would melt down half the amount of the silver for the bride's dowry, the other half he could keep as his own to pay him for his labor. On the wedding day, the bride would sit loaded down with many pounds of magnificently worked silver beads, chain maille headdresses and hair ornaments, rings, bracelets and anklets. Most of the adornment would be of silver, because this would become the married woman's savings account, mad money and life insurance, in case her much older husband died before she did. There were also beads of amber or other gems of natural substances, but the valuable beads were the silver ones.

This particular necklace, which would have been re-strung in Yemen from a much older collection in some antique jewelry shop. The Jewish silversmith who made the original pieces that are included in this arrangement emigrated to Israel in the early 1900s and there has not been another load of Yemen bride wealth created by these gifted silversmiths since that time.

The necklace is 16 inches long. The dome-shaped focal element is 1 inch in diameter.

silver, metal, coral

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