The traditional jewellery of the Syrian region, which incorporated much of Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon as well as Syria itself in the 19th century, shows influences from a wide range of sources, reflecting Syria’s strong trading traditions and central location. The jewellery worn in towns, which is often Ottoman in style, is frequently very different from that worn by the nomadic Bedouin, whose characteristic silver jewellery is much better known today.

This chain was described as a znak, or chain to ‘fasten on the pantoar or horn for the head’. The pantour, or tantour as it is now usually known, was a high conical headdress, resembling the hennin headdress worn by aristocratic women in Western Europe in the late medieval period. Today it is the most distinctive element of the traditional women’s dress of the Lebanese Druze, but it was worn over a wider area in the 19th century. It was held in place by tapes or chains, as here. The word znak is a generic Arabic name in the region for chains worn under the chin to hold various kinds of headdress in place.

This example was bought for five shillings and six pence at the International Exhibition, London, in 1872, as an example of traditional Syrian jewellery.