Head band of silver chain and silver-gilt plaques on a black cloth band, with pendant ear ornaments, Armenia, 1850-1870.

Head band consisting of a rectangular piece of black cloth decorated with silver chain and plaques of gilded sheet silver, with a red cord for fastening attached at each end. Across the front of the band are eight circular silver-gilt discs, alternating with seven rectangles with concave sides, all decorated with rings of twisted wire and granules. These plaques are surrounded with a strip of silver panzer chain. There are 21 small pendants of silver granule lozenges hanging from the bottom edge of the band. A pendant is attached at each end of the band which would have hung down at the side of the face. Each pendant consists of a top piece of three tubes soldered together side by side, with a loop-in-loop chain, ending in a circular disc with twisted wire decoration, attached at each side. Below this is a rosette of loops, with two more chain pendants, one at each side, and a central crescent, from which are suspended two more pendants of silver tubes and discs with twisted wire decoration.

The Armenians were famous for their silver-work in the 19th century. They were widely dispersed outside their homeland in the south Caucasus, and produced jewellery, particularly filigree, in traditional styles for many other nationalities and faiths (they were proudly Orthodox Christian themselves).

This necklace was described as Armenian when it was acquired for the Museum for £1 8s at the International Exhibition, London, 1872, but it could have been worn almost anywhere in the Ottoman Empire. The pattern, of intermeshing discs and diabolos, has been used in Islamic jewellery since the Middle Ages.

1417-1873