Amber?

Amber or not?

 

First instinct yes, second instinct...dunno. What does it weigh?

 

Very light for its size.

 

Does it have bubbles? At second glace it looks like bubbles; if so it might be some sort of composite. I'm betting @Any Jewelry has seen this stuff before.

 

I think it does. There are no bubbles in natural amber?

 

The way it's chipped, not amber.

 

It is Moroccan.
The bead is an example of the pressed Baltic amber mix beads made in the late 19th and early 20th century in Germany and Bohemia, and mostly exported to North Africa and Yemen. They were re-used in later jewellery.

Information in literature is very confusing on these beads. Marjorie Ransom, an authority on Yemeni jewellery, calls it pressed amber. The term pressed amber is used for 100% amber which is heated and pressed into bead shapes.
I believe they could be amber mixed with something else, possibly natural resin, maybe even copal. Copal is a stage in between natural resin and amber. It is also used in Moroccan jewellery.
I have several jewellery pieces made with similar beads, Moroccan, Yemeni, and German. They all pass the UV test for amber, but so does some bonded amber, which is amber with a binding agent.
I can't do the float test in salt water because the silver weighs them down, and I don't want to do anything that could damage them. When I list them, I mention the information and doubts I have and let the buyer decide.

 

Thanks AJ.
Is this supposed to be a necklace or have other purpose?

 

It is a necklace. Many of these were brought back in the 60s and 70s.
I have a similar pendant, the setting of the bead is base metal, the dangle is silver. Not unusual in ethnic jewellery, a bit of mix and match.