Bedouin Silver Necklace (Lazim)

This large and complete necklace comprises six main boxes and three cylindrical amulet boxes, plus dozens of flattened, spherical silver beads, and dozens of silver chains that terminate by being threaded onto fine silver rods from which silver pendant beads with granulation work finials.

The main boxes are pierced and decorated with spirals and applied plaques and granulation work.

The amulet boxes are decorated with applied silver wire spangles and filigree work, They have pyramidal finials at each end. Probably, they enclose koranic versus giving the necklace protective, talismanic properties.

The necklace retains its original thick, rope-like threading.

A related necklace is illustrated in Hosli (2023, p, 161) and attributed to North Yemen. Others are in Ransom (2014, p. 58, p. 104) and in Colyer Ross (1978, p. 22).

The necklace here is from a now elderly expatriate collector who was based in Saudi Arabia and who collected it in the 1970s from Abha, the local capital of the ‘Asir Region in Southern Saudi Arabia, near the Yemen border.

The necklace has plenty of age, wear and patina. There is the loss of one chain – the shortest and upper-most – between two of the sets of plaques. One has six interlinking chains, and all the others have seven but this loss is barely apparent amid all the profusion.