ArtFire

This gilded silver ornament is called a tenecir and is sewn onto a woman's cloth headband at the temple so that a pair of them frames her face and calls attention to her eyes. In this particular piece the owner punched two small holes in order to attach the tenecir to her headband.

An ornament almost identical to this one is published in the work of Dieter and Reinhold Schletzer in Old Silver Jewellery of the Turkoman, 1983. The gilding and layering process in the Teke tribe's preferred method of hand crafting jewelry is described in this work. To summarize: silver ingots are melted down, poured into the desired thickness and worked into the correct smoothness. Then a thinner layer of sheet silver is made golden in color by mixing melted gold with the thin sheet of silver, then tracing the cut-out patterns from a template and cutting them out. Finally the two pieces are heated and combined into a unit.
It is not as simple a process as I have written. But since most of us will not be creating such a delicate and demanding piece of Central Asian art, we don't need the full silversmithing tutorial.

Carnelians and turquoise are the Turkoman two favorite stones. In fact, by the twentieth century, that is, the beginning of the 1900s, Central Asian jewelers were using red and blue-green glass as it was more exotic to them than the abundant carnelian and turquoise in their region. I believe the blue stones in this piece are probably glass beads. The carnelians, however, are classic oval cabochons that were used in the earliest traditional pieces by the Turkoman silversmiths. The five baubles dangling from the central plaque are all pierced on the back as is typical among the Turkoman silversmiths. Their reason is probably technical and I have not learned an explanation of the practice.

A word now about the symbolism in the piece, as no Turkoman jewelry was created without reference to the tribal myths. The leaf and blossom motifs represent the tribal connection to the nature myths, their connection to the original Altai mountain forest from which they descended onto the plains of Central Asia. The small horns on each side of the ornament are an abbreviated form of the ram's head that is the premier ancestor symbol of the Turkmen.

This ornament works beautifully as a pendant and is now hung on an adjustable length leather cord from which it is easily removed if desired.

Measurements of ornament pendant including baubles:
7.5 in long x 1.8 in wide (20.5 cm x 4.7 cm)

Lay-away Plan offered, see policies tab above. Inquiries invited.

Silver, gold, carnelian, glass

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