Silver head ornament of a central semi-circular plaque, set with a cornelian, linked by chains with pendants to two hooks, Turkestan, 1850-1880.

A complex head ornament, consisting of three drop-shaped hooks linked by chains. The hooks are made from sheet silver decorated with applied filigree. In the centre is a flat semi-circular pendant decorated with applied filigree in the same way as the hooks and set with a rectangular red paste in a toothed mount. The hooks are each linked to each other by two loop-in-loop chains, of different lengths, so that they hang down in swags when worn. Numerous flat triangular pendants, each stamped with a pattern of dots, hang from each of the chains and the lower edge of the central pendant.

Letter in register:
'My husband bought the little cap [739-1900], breast ornament [736-1900] & head dress [735-1900], with large ear-rings [737&A-1900, 738&A-1900] from Turkestan, when with Sir Peter Lumsden in 1884 & 5. Also heavy bracelets [733&A-1900]. The shawl fastener [732-1900] & brooch [731-1900], are of Kabyle workmanship & I brought them from Algiers. Kabyle jewelry will be known by having coral & turquoise settings - Turkestan, by cornelian in silver'

This piece of jewellery was described as a Turkoman breast ornament (chanjuk) when it was acquired by the Museum in 1900. The three hooks at the top suggest that it is more likely to be a head ornament. It is not typical of Turkoman jewellery and may have been imported from somewhere else, possibly from the Ottoman Empire where such head ornaments were more common.

It was acquired in Turkistan, with other pieces of Turkoman jewellery, in 1884-5, during an Anglo-Russian conference to define the north-west frontier of Afghanistan, and was given to the Museum in 1900.

736-1900