Featured Help please determining country or region of origin?- mixed pieces.

Hello again my Jewelers of Wisdom! I have a really quick question, please, if anyone can help?
I'm compiling a last-minute auction house inventory and failed to find the origins of these ethnic pieces. I haven't bothered to measure them, hoping it won't be necessary to determine place of origin. Did I say "Last minute"?
The first (apparently from the bottom up, sorry!) is a set of three: two bracelets and a collar, of heavy , linked mixed metal pieces. No Marks. It feels African to me. The first photo was before I took the time to lay one out properly. They end up like Slinkys when you pick them up.
The second is a bracelet and clip earring set with a green stone wired and mounted on top of silver "pop-over pans". Again, no marks!
The third is a group of Tourist ware. No marks! I'm guessing Egypt?
And the last, begging your patience, are three bracelets that I'm calling Italian damascene. All that skill and craftwork and yet, no marks! Thanks all!

 

Wow, can't get much closer than that. Mexico sounds plausible. Thanks!

 

For the first 3 bracelets, look for Damascene

 

Check the panels in the first 3 photos with a magnet to see if they are magnetic.

 

1950s México. I've always called the stone "green onyx" but others say it's another type of chalcedony.

Debora

 

First two don't know origin.
Third one with birds looks like Japanese Damascene as mentioned.
Fourth has Siam silver bracelets. Should be marked.
Fifth is Mexican Silver or Alpaca and should be marked if silver. I've always called it green onyx as well.
Sixth don't know.

It would be nice is you showed any marks with the corresponding pieces.

 

Thanks. There are no marks.

 

The bracelets in the 4th pic are Marsh Arab niello - they show scenes from the Tigris and Euphrates River Valley (the 1st bracelet has a depiction of the Iraqi 'Lion of Babylon')...

~Cheryl

 

The top 3 appear to be Spanish damascene,are the panels magnetic.

 

fourth pic from top. Iran, probably Isfahan tourist ware. would test nonetheless for silver.
https://poshmark.com/listing/Antiqu...er-800-pure-bracelet-5ae4a6ae31a3769279c1c2c2

1,2,3 from top perhaps Venetian niello.

 

Yes, the panels on all three are magnetic!

 

Most likely Spanish damascene then,definitely not niello.

 

The imagery on the niello bracelets is distinctive to Marsh Arab silver, it was also known as 'Amara work' (Amara is in Iraq), and as already said, the 1st bracelet shows the 'Lion of Babylon', an ancient Mesopotamian sculpture at Babylon in Iraq. The Marsh Arab pieces were popular with the British military and usually date from around the 1910s into the '40s.

This filigree bracelet is clearly dated to 1945 Iraq: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/iraqi-marsh-arab-filigree-niello-1945-274012418

One very similar to the 2nd bracelet, but with a 'Lion of Babylon': https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/iraqi-sterling-silver-marsh-arab-1729417489

A 1916 'Amara' napkin ring: https://www.rubylane.com/item/65645...pkin-Ring-Sterling-Silver?search=1&t=881db355




As already suggested the Damascene bracelets are Spanish and are not niello.

Scroll down to Fig. 7 for a bracelet similar to yours: http://milkywayjewels.com/damascene/Damascene.html

~Cheryl

 

Gorgeous, Darkwing.

The top 3 are damascene from Toledo, Spain. Really nice examples.
The gold and silver are hammered onto blackened iron, so yes, magnetic.

The second lot are Iraqi niello with Marsh Arab motifs, as Cheryl said. Highly collectible, and although Iranians make very nice filigree, these are definitely not Iranian.
It is unlikely the Marsh Arab made these themselves, given their culture and the high flammability of their reed islands, but their reed houses and boats were a popular motif for early souvenir pieces.
These are the most valuable of them all.

The next lot are Mexican, as mentioned. I would also think late 40s-50s.

 

Became fascinated by the Marsh Arabs, their history and recent troubles, when I bought a lot of spoons years ago, one kept for my collection, the rest sold to an Iraqi gentleman living here. This is an excerpt from C.J. Edmond's 'East and West of Zagros', recounting a 1916 journey through the 'Great Swamp' and describing the Mandaean (Subbi) Marsh Arabs as boat builders and silversmiths (the Mandaeans were and are known as goldsmiths, a centuries-old tradition):



~Cheryl

 

Even if the Mexican bracelet is marked for silver have it tested. I have seen many, many similar pieces falsely marked as silver

 

Very interesting, thank you Cheryl. There have been a couple of documentaries on Marsh Arabs here lately. Most have left the marshes now, but the ones who live on the 'mainland' still cherish their identity. There was no mention of gold- or silversmiths, do you know if they still do that?

 

Between the draining of the marshes and persecution due to their religious beliefs, most Mandaeans, whether marsh-dwellers or not, fled Iraq, though some stayed or have returned - there are still practicing goldsmiths, but the tradition is dying out...

~Cheryl

 

Proper Damascene indeed, rather than Toledo Ware. 1960s ish. I've a fair bit of it.

And that's solved a little mystery. I seem to own a Marsh Arab bracelet!