Pectoral Disc Ornament

Pectoral Disc ornament

When glass stones first became available in Central Asia in the late nineteenth century, they were considered a desirable novelty since they offered the opportunity for increasingly lavish coloristic effects. As F. von Schwartz noted in 1900: “The native silversmiths make much use of coloured stones but they are seldom genuine. Of genuine stones about the only ones used are turquoises, the favorite gem of Central Asia. Cornelian and agate mainly decorate silver-decked horse harnesses. All other coloured stones are either of Bohemian glass or simply consist of clear glass underlaid with a piece of coloured paper.”[17]

The glass imports were soon adopted by Yomut silversmiths. It is a well-known tradition in the Islamic world to replicate precious materials with cheaper synthetic ones as long as they achieve the same aesthetic impact. Examples of such practices are the use of turquoise-colored enamel in place of true turquoise by medieval Iranian jewelers; the creation of lusterware in Abbasid Iraq to achieve the effect of precious metals; and the invention of imitation lusterware in Samanid Iran before the secret of Iraqi lusterware was rediscovered by Persian potters in the thirteenth century.[18]

The taste for coloristic effects is apparent in the use of turquoise and carnelian together, a combination seen in a number of Central Asian urban workshop ornaments (see no. 2006.544.8). This small disc-shaped pectoral of plain silver exhibits a design of a central large carnelian in a floral setting of small turquoise beads. A series of spokes emanates from the center, and the rim is decorated with turquoise beads. Although the basic design vocabulary references the Yomut tradition, the turquoises are placed in silver decorative wire settings in teardrop shapes, a distinctive feature of Central Asian and Afghan jewelry.[19]

Layla S. Diba in [Diba 2011]

Footnotes:

17. As cited in Kalter, Johannes, and Margareta Pavaloi, eds. Uzbekistan: Heirs to the Silk Road. New York, 1997, p. 287.

18. Diba, Layla. “Enamel.” In Encyclopaedia Iranica, vol. 8, p. 424. Costa Mesa, Calif., 1998.; Jenkins, Marilyn, and Manuel Keene. Islamic Jewelry in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, [1982], p. 28; Ettinghausen, Richard, and Oleg Grabar. The Art and Architecture of Islam: 650–1250. New York, 1987, pp. 110–11 and 227, on luster.

19. See Sychova, Natalya. Iuvelirnye ukrasheniia narodov Srednei AziiIz i Kazakhstana, XIX–XX vekov: Iz sobraniia Gosudarstvennogo Muzeia Iskusstva Narodov Vostoka/Traditional Jewellery from Soviet Central Asia and Kazakhstan from the Collection of the Museum of Oriental Art. Moscow, 1984, pp. 46–47, fig. 13 for an example.

Marshall and Marilyn R. Wolf, Toronto, Canada (by 2006–14; gifted to MMA)

Diba, Layla S. "Silver Ornaments from the Marshall and Marilyn R. Wolf Collection." In Turkmen Jewelry. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011. no. 82, p. 131, ill.