George
has bought and sold non-European silver for over 20 years principally
whilst working on a Smithsonian Institution contract during the
1980-2000 period, and the
following article might be useful
regarding selecting silver items. In silver jewelry the
"silver" is rarely faked as it is so cheap to purchase in bulk. When a
collector, as opposed to a retailer, is
buying jewelry the weight is the first thing taken into account, as
this sets the base price in terms of silver cost. The next
question to ask is whether or not the design is pleasing: for dealers
this does not
alter the price much because it is a yes or no answer that depends on the
collector. Unusual designs can up the price, but again this depends on
the
taste of
the buyer. However, if the design is unique or rare then the price
increases. The question of workmanship is the final thing to
consider. Excellent workmanship, particularly if it is by a known
artisan, can 'sky-rocket'
the price. The age of the
piece becomes especially relevant when the item becomes an antiquity of
over 100 years old. The price then depends almost totally on the
workmanship and rarity of the design. |
The status of silver,
like that of
gold, is connected primarily with its rarity and only secondarily with
its embellishments. Wealth was at one time, and is even today in some
societies, hoarded in the form of precious metals and gems. In some
cases these are constantly worn, as the best means of retaining
possession. Traditionally, the basic ornament of a long string of beads
of precious metal and gemstones is simply the stringing of wealth
around the neck to keep it safe.
Not until the arrival of the
British in India did silver become more
prominent as the metal of the jeweler. The industrial era brought with
it less need to carry one's treasure on one's person, and except in
rural areas, jewelry became light in weight and bulk, and the use of
metals regarded as less precious than gold [white gold, platinum and
silver] came into vogue. Silver jewelry is more reminiscent of rural
communities and ordinary villages, whereas gold was worn by the family
of chiefs and wealthy landholders.
Next to gold, silver is the most malleable and ductile of all metals. The jewelry is fashioned even today with traditional iron, copper and bronze tools. In rupousse work, a design is punched into relief from the back. The sheet is then engraved and chased on its front. Chasing is making an indentation into the silver by pressure, whereas engraving gouges out the metal. The resultant sheet is then worked into its final design. Open work is produced by cutting the sheet metal with a saw. Die stamping sandwiches the sheet metal between a metal pattern mold and a lead sheet, whereupon it is beaten with a mallet. Filigree work is silver wire that has been shaped by tweezers. The attachment of round balls of metal by gluing and then blow-piping is called rawal. Traditionally, when gemstones were incorporated into the jewelry they were left uncut. The use of claw settings to hold cut stones came to India with the British.
Silver jewelry can be classified into six categories according to age: archaeological, historic, antique, vintage, modern, and contemporary. Unfortunately, there is no sound scientific method of dating metals comparable to the use of radiogenic carbon for organic materials and thermo luminescence for ceramics. Style and technique are used to determine the approximate age of an unknown piece. For this reason there are some master forgers among modern Indian craftsmen who produce imitations and reproductions of antique, historic and archaeological pieces. The problem of silver content is not normally an issue as it is with gold, primarily because of the relatively low cost of pure silver. In general one must rely on the knowledge and honesty of the dealer to know the age. Because much of the antique and historic silver jewelry produced in India was made from old coinage, it is possible to determine the age of the silver that was used to make the jewelry by comparing the detailed chemical analysis of the piece with a reference set of chemical analyses from silver coins. However, sometimes the silver is used over and over again so that it is possible to have a contemporary piece made from silver coinage that is antique silver. Historic and archaeological silver regularly contains lead isotopes and these can be used to provide some information about the source of the metal. But silver decomposes when buried. So it is only under unusual circumstances that artifacts made of silver are preserved in archaeological sites.
Although silver can occur in nature in a free state that is 99% pure, it is generally mixed with copper, gold and other metals. Most silver is obtained from smelting of some mineral ore in which the actual silver content might be very small. There are two major groups of ores from which silver is produced. The dry ores are the true silver ores and mined primarily for their silver content. The metalliferous ores are ores of some other mineral, such as lead, zinc and copper, in which the silver is produced as a bi-product. Refined silver contains between 997.5 and 999.0 parts per 1,000 of elemental silver. A standard troy ounce is 925 fine, which is derived from the silver content of the older British coinage.
India does not produce silver, yet silver jewelry is everywhere. The modern silversmiths can purchase silver as a bulk commodity, but the earlier artisans obtained their material by trade, principally with northern neighbors.
Armenia, Persia and Afghanistan were important sources of silver for the Indian silversmith. Coinage was introduced into the subcontinent by the Persians, and, after the Persian emperor Darius I annexed north-east India in 518 BC, Persian coins became the dominant source of silver for Indian artisans. The white Hun overran the region in 455 AD. producing a period of cultural blight not to be changed until the coming of Islam via Mohammed-bin-Qasim, the Damascene general whose army invaded the Lower Indus valley in 712 AD. A tremendous amount of silver came into India from Mecca, which Muslim pilgrims must visit during their lifetime. The old markets of Saudi Arabia were a treasure-trove of vintage and antique silver jewelry because many pilgrims sold their jewelry in order to have money for their return trip to their homeland. From the Mecca markets the silver made its way east and south to northern India, where it became part of the general pool.
When the Europeans entered India in the seventeenth century they did so as traders within a well established commercial economy. Bengal already was a merchant center and the Europeans enhanced this with trade routes to Indonesia and Europe. However, there was little that Europe had to provide Bengal in return for the goods they received and a consequence was that Bengal became a major importer of silver by way of exchange-of-goods. The East India Company "fairly consistently sent upward of 200,000 (English pounds) a year in silver to pay for its imports from India. The Dutch imported at a slightly higher level, and the French slightly lower" [Gordon Johnson, Cultural Atlas of India, Facts On File, Inc.]
The ancient trade
routes, too, supplied their share of silver,
principally in the form of jewelry. Even today it is possible to find
material from ancient Persia, Iraq and the general area of Asia Minor
in India.
From the north, Tibet, and even
China, trade was established and silver
changed hands, gradually becoming part of the flow southwards. Today
much of the tribal jewelry in northeastern India shows the influence of
the Tibetan craftsmen in its use of green turquoise and silver in
combination. It has even been suggested that the silver art of the
native American is derived from the knowledge of the ancient Asian
silversmiths whose wares and techniques were taken first to Spain and
then to the New World.
| VINTAGE SILVER NECKLACES | |||||
| TYPE | MATERIAL | DESCRIPTION | PRICE | IMAGE | |
| Necklace | silver | Rajathstan. Traditional tribal necklace with central silver pendant. 113 gms | $450 |  |  |
| Choker | silver | Antique Rajathstan necklace: 186 gms. Articulated with inserted green stone [glass?]. Stone is cracked but whole | $450 |  |  |
| Necklace or choker | silver | Himachal: British India coins. Stunning piece. 181 gms | $1200 |  |  |
| Necklace or Choker | silver | Traditional tribal Gujarat necklace: 133 gms | $400 |  |  |
| Necklace | silver | Snake chain from Mysore:247 gms | $800 |
|  |
| Necklace | silver | Northern India: 235 gms. The best piece in our collection: in presentation case. | NFS |
|  |
| Choker | Silver and semi-precious stones. | Tribal choker, Orissa, Kijria Khond. | $550 |
|  |
| Necklace | Silver | Rajathstan: three silver pendants strung as a choker or necklace. 44 gms. | $350 |
|  |
