Enquiry about object: 5449
Multiple-Strand Red Glass Bead Naga Necklace
Naga People, India/Burma circa 1900
total length (circumference as worn): 75cm
Provenance
UK art market; most likely, the necklace has been in the UK since the colonial era.
This fine and large Naga necklace comprises multiple strands of thin, long red glass trade beads. These are strung on cotton twine which terminate in woven cotton ends.
The necklace is closed with a loop and a lightly etched white shell ‘button’.
Among the Nagas, necklaces that are thick with so many strands typically were worn by women; men wore sparser necklaces. And the thicker the necklace, the greater the presumed wealth of the wearer and her family. So it can be presumed that this necklace came from an unusually wealthy Naga family.
The beads used in this and related necklaces most probably originated in India. Larger beads often were trade beads from Venice, France and China.
Similar examples are illustrated in Barbier (1984, p. 35), Jacobs (1990, p. 317), and Shilu (2003, p. 13).
The Naga are a tribal group concentrated in the border areas of north-eastern India and eastern Burma. They were attracted to rare goods that could be bartered from outside their region. Beaded necklaces were very popular as a show of finery but also as a portable means of displaying and carrying wealth. The components that went into making necklaces were regarded as currency items themselves. Beads and necklaces were accumulated as heirlooms and were passed as dowries.
The example here is in a fine and wearable condition.
References
Barbier, J. P., Art of Nagaland: The Barbier-Müller Collection, Geneva, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1984.
Daalder, T., Ethnic Jewellery and Adornment: Australia, Oceania, Asia, Africa, Ethnic Art Press/Macmillan, 2009.
Jacobs, J., The Nagas: Hill Peoples of Northeast India, Thames & Hudson, 1990.
Saul, J.D., The Naga of Burma: Their Festivals, Customs and Way of Life, Orchid Press, 2005.
Shilu, A., Naga Tribal Adornment: Signatures of Status and Self, The Bead Museum, Washington, 2003.
