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Necklace - Filigree Necklace

Filigree Necklace

  • Object:

    Necklace

  • Place of origin:

    Calicut, India (made)

  • Date:

    ca. 1850 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Unknown (production)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Gold wire, with stamped florets and applied flat discs and hemispheres

  • Museum number:

    124-1852

  • Gallery location:

    South Asia, room 41, case 11

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This gold necklace was one of the earliest Indian objects bought for what would become the Victoria and Albert Museum. It was exhibited at the 1851 Great Exhibition as "modern" work from Calicut, and was bought for the considerable sum of £30 for the new South Kensington Museum as an example of the best international contemporary design. The jeweller has manipulated a relatively small amount of gold to maximum effect to create interlinked motifs of filigree to which very small elements have been applied. These were made by hammering pieces of thin sheet gold onto a metal die over shaped depressions thereby producing identical motifs.

Physical description

Necklace consisting of several bands of florets linked both horizontally and vertically by wire. A flat clasp.

Place of Origin

Calicut, India (made)

Date

ca. 1850 (made)

Artist/maker

Unknown (production)

Materials and Techniques

Gold wire, with stamped florets and applied flat discs and hemispheres

Dimensions

Length: 33.5 cm approx., Width: 34 cm

Object history note

This necklace was purchased by the South Kensington Museum from the Great Exhibition as an example of modern Indian work. It represented all the qualities the British commentators admired in Indian craftsmanship.

Descriptive line

Filigree necklace, made of gold wire with stamped florets, Calicut, India, ca. 1850.

Bibliographic References (Citation, Note/Abstract, NAL no)

Swallow, Deborah and John Guy eds. Arts of India: 1550-1900. text by Rosemary Crill, John Guy, Veronica Murphy, Susan Stronge and Deborah Swallow. London : V&A Publications, 1990. 240 p., ill. ISBN 1851770224, p.222, pl.197. Barnard, Nick. ‘Indian Jewellery : The V&A Collection’. London : V&A Publishing, 2008. ISBN 9781851774838, p.90, pl.4.8.
Susan Stronge, Nima Smith and J.C. Harle, A Golden Treasury. Jewellery from the Indian Subcontinent, V&A/Mapin Publishing Pvt., 1988, cat. 73, p. 80
E. B. Havell,"The Art Industries of the Madras Presidency", The Journal of Indian Art and Industry,vol. VI, October 1894, pl. 19A

Associated Events

Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations

Production Note

Kozhikode, Kerala

Materials

Gold; Wire

Techniques

Stamping

Categories

Metalwork; Jewellery

Collection code

SSEA

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Qr_O18875
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