4255

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    Rare Burmese Amber Bead Necklace

    Mizo People, Mizoram/Assam, India or Western Burma
    19th century

    length: 112cm, weight: 166g

    Sold

    Provenance

    private collection, London.

    – scroll down to see further images –

    This superb Burmese amber necklace is among the finest examples we have seen.

    It comprises long, cylindrical reddish-brown amber beads separated by amber and metal disks. There are some addition trade yellow and a green glass bead at the top. Probably these have their origins in India.

    The amber is known as burmite, a type of fossilised amber that originates in Burma’s Kachin State, and which was known to the Chinese as early as the Han period (206 BC-220 AD).

    This type of necklace was worn by Mizo women in what is now Mizoram state, formerly part of India’s Assam state. The Mizos prized Burmese amber for its reddish-brown mottled colour.

    Related examples are in Untracht (1997, p. 82).

    The antiquity of the necklace is obvious, and yet it is in a stable and wearable condition. It is stung on native twine.

    References

    Leurquin, A., A World of Necklaces: Africa, Asia, Oceania, America from the Ghysels Collection, Skira, 2003.

    Untracht, O., Traditional Jewelry of India, Thames & Hudson, 1997.

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