Large three-part silver and silver-gilt belt clasp with inlaid jade, turquoise, garnet and coral decoration, Turkey, 1800-1890.

Silver-gilt and metal clasp with pin fastening. The clasp is made from three palmettes (stylised leaf forms) arranged around a central disc, one pointing up, the other two pointing sideways. The central part is set with a crescent of grey jade, inlaid with an arabesque design of silver and turquoises (some missing). This is surrounded by a band of garnets and turquoises in closed settings, and an outer band of domes with applied filigree decoration alternating with coral beads. There is a large filigree dome above this, and in the centre of each of the outer parts, also surrounded with a band of domes and coral beads. Any spare space on the surface is filled with stylised fruit, coil rings, and hollow stars, domes, rosettes and lozenges.

The piece on the right, facing the clasp, is soldered to the central piece, and the piece on the left is attached by a pin fastening. The pin is joined to the clasp by a chain of figure-of-eight links, which is looped across the front of the clasp to a ring at the top of the centre piece and then to a ring at the top of the right-hand piece. The front of all the parts is made from a sheet of gilded silver which is soldered to a rim of lower-standard metal. There are vertical bars on the back to attach the clasp to a belt.

Across the northern part of the Ottoman Empire, from the north Balkans to the Caucasus, large and elaborate waist clasps were the most important item in a woman’s dowry. These clasps come in a small number of basic shapes. This one has three palmette shapes (stylised leaf forms) radiating upwards and sideways from a central disc. It was fastened by a pin, which attached the left-hand piece to the rest of the clasp. The two chains, which join the pin to the clasp, hung down decoratively over the front of the clasp when it was fastened.

While filigree decoration is found extensively throughout the region, the use of a jade inset, inlaid with silver arabesques and gems, is unique to Turkey. The large coral beads are also more characteristic of Turkish clasps than those worn in the Balkans or the Levant.

174-1896