Omani Silver, Gold & Coral Single-Row Necklace with Amulet Box (Hirz)

This fine Omani necklace of silver and gold comprises a single strand of spiky, seed pod-like silver beads; gold-wrapped beads; six silver Maria Theresa thaler coins; five silver pendants mounted with natural red coral segments; and a large silver amulet box known as a hirz decorated with embossed-gold sheet panels, with multiple chain tassels each of which finishes with a square-shaped pendant cut from sheet silver.

The pillow-shaped amulet box or hirz would have contained some paper with Koranic verses or something similar.

The ends of the necklace are capped with long beads of wrapped silver wire, which are themselves superb examples of Omani jewellery work. Additionally, above the hirz are two beads wrapped in gold sheet.

The reverse of the hirz is unusually attractive with the addition of applied silver wire spirals on each end.

Such an elaborate and costly necklace would have been owned only by the wealthiest families, and worn only at times of important festivities such as those associated with marriage celebrations.

The inclusion of coral is uncommon – coral was expensive and in jewellery served a talismanic, protective purpose. The fact that the coral elements are asymmetric – there are two on one side and three on the other – need not mean that one is missing, but rather that the elements were added as the family could afford them.

Inspiration for the spiky, seed pod-like silver beads was drawn by local silversmiths from Oman’s desert interior, where a myriad of thorns grow on bushes and seedpods. (See more on this in our short essay on Oman’s desert thorns.)

Maria Theresa thalers have been struck in Austria since the reign of Empress Maria Theresa of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The Empress died in 1780 and since that time, all thalers that were subsequently struck were minted with that date regardless of the actual year that they were produced. The coins achieved such a level of trust for their silver content (which is 83.3% silver) in the Middle East that neither the design not the date was varied, and so for more than 200 years the coins were used as an international currency among the tribes and the states of the Middle East, in much the same way as the Spanish dollar was used as an international currency at the time elsewhere. The thalers were used to complete most important transactions locally and were also given as dowries. They were also an important source of silver and were melted locally for jewellery.

The coins made their way to the ports of the Red Sea, Egypt and northern Africa from the ports of Genoa, Trieste, Livorno and Marseille. European traders used the coins to buy precious materials from the Gulf and northern Africa which it desired – commodities such as spices, coffee, gum Arabic, indigo, pearls, and tortoise shell.

The importance and the beauty of the coins saw them incorporated into local jewellery most particularly in Oman and Yemen.

The necklace here is in excellent condition. It is stable and wearable. It also has obvious age.