Featured Hell of a doozy of a necklace. Berber?

This helluva doozy came into my grips yesterday. I paid up on it more than I typically would for an unknown. First hour of a sale. I’m never there that early, usually last day. So I just tossed it in my pile and crossed my fingers rather than risk thinking it over much. Looks kinda North African tribal to me. Berber? The beads look African and the amber (faux?) I know they like. I’ve had some awesome Copal amber strands from Africa. The penannular brooch on a necklace is new to me. It’s super sharp and made for real business. Glass is used on the pendant which I assume is low grade silver. It’s a cool one IMO. The Amber looks faux to me. Bakelite maybe? What say you knowledgeable folks? If not African the middle eastern?

 

What do the beads look like under UV?

 

It is a nice Moroccan necklace made for trade, so not tribal in the sense of traditional. I think it is 1960s-70s.
The beads are faux amber, possibly sourced from older necklaces.

It is one of a pair of Moroccan Berber/Amazigh fibulas called 'tizerzai'. The triangular shape refers to the Goddess Tanith.
In ethnic jewellery terms these clothing fasteners are always called fibula, even if they are a penannular shape. Function over form. Never brooch, which is considered purely decorative.

Below is how Berber fibulas are worn, this is a huge pair, probably from the south. She doesn't look very happy, but her jewellery is stunning:


https://maisondelaphotographie.ma/produit/femme-berbere-circa-1950/?lang=en

 

I think I left my loupe with uv open so many times after using it that the battery died. Cheapy that can’t you can’t replace the battery in. So I don’t have uv at the moment. I leave loupes open constantly.

 

Me too! The batteries are dead in all of mine so I bought a separate little torch.

 

(dumb look) Oh yeah... some of them do have lights in them. The one in my purse may be older than I am, so I do without.

 

I think I left my loupe with

Yeh I should get one. I’d probably just leave that on. I suppose the batteries at least could be changed.

 

I’ve been wanting to get a nice antique or at least vintage loupe. They go for big bucks some of them. I bought a box lot at auction once that I recall had some in it. I forgot it at the auction house that was a few states away. When I returned to pick up the items I forgot I found that box had been picked over with the loupes and little turquoise/lapis fetishes gone too. Probably more was missing that I didn’t realize. Maybe people just thought I didn’t want the stuff and left it there knowingly. I complained to auction house about it and the basically told me tough shit. Since I was out of state they probably though I wouldn’t be back anyways. In that they were right to this point lol.

 

Thanks. Fantastic information I really appreciate it. You are quite the well of knowledge. That’s quite the statement she makes in the photo with that massive jewelry.

 

I can see that outfit going to the Met Gala and garnering all sorts of attention.

 

I just learned about Faturan. Do you think the beads are that, Bakelite, or something different?

 

No need for UV in this case.

Faturan is from Turkey and the Middle East, a great distance from Morocco, which is on the Atlantic coast of North Africa (and a bit of the Western Mediterranean).

You could test them for bakelite, but it could be 'something different'. If they don't test as bakelite, faux amber is the safest term to use.

Berber women are known for making faux amber by melting platic buckets and adding the right pigments. I don't know if they were already doing that when these beads were made, but it is a possibility.

 

Maybe this helps to get an idea of the distance between Turkey and the Middle East on the right, and Morocco on the far left.
Morocco is the same latitude as Portugal and Ireland

 

Nice map, and information you added to this thread.

 

How industrious, buckets to beads! I had been wondering more about possibly German Faturan based on the era you speculated it may be from and that they could have been older beads. I know nothing about where and when it was used and traded though. Only what wiki told me. I’ll trust it’s probably not that. I have a large box full of what were billed at auction as Bakelite and other early plastic bracelets. Before I sell them I guess I better buy some 409 and test them and these suckers while I’m at it.