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Turquoise-Set Gold Necklace

Museum of Islamic Art

Currently on view at Museum of Islamic Art
Title:
Turquoise-Set Gold Necklace
Production place:
Iran
Date:
1100 - 1157
Period:
Seljuq
Material:
Gold, Turquoise
Technique:
Stone setting, Filigree

These gold jewellery fittings most probably likely originally once formed part of a necklace, whose though the connecting chain or string is now lost. Their variety of shapes, and sizes - as well asand decoration - testifies to the playful heterogeneity of muchshows the diversity of Saljuq jewellery. Artisans of the period often combined a wide range of materials., in which different media were frequently strung or mounted together to craft artworks with pleasingly disparate elements: chunksSuch items included of unworked rock crystal, copper-alloy coins, carnelian beads, and wooden fittings. have Aall have been found strung together in necklaces and bracelets of the period.
The Saljuqs were not long removed from their pre-Islamic Turkic ancestors, and retained a nomad's sense of portability in the safeguarding and accumulation of personal wealth - especially with jewellery, textiles, and livestock.

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