| Original Message: A Pictorial of Afghan Seal-Beads |
|---|
|
Hi you all, I have scanned a number of speciemns from my archive, showing examples of seal-beads from Afghanistan. Most, if not all, of these were probably made in India (based on the quality of the carnelian). However, Iran cannot be ruled-out. I want to begin by showing a few groups from the Ehrenfeld Collection, that I became familiar with in 1987, and worked with over the next two or three years. Dr. Ehrenfeld was a fairly famous collector of Indian art—particularly North Indian miniatures. His home was quite a repository of almost everything you can imagine; and he devised two significant museum shows in the '80s and '90s (the second of which I attended in San Francisco). He was a cardiologist by profession, and famous for his work in angioplasty. He actually saved my life once, by getting me into a hospital to deal with an infection that was being maltreated by my local hospital out-patient service. I remain eternally grateful. It is a sad fact that Dr. Ehrenfeld passed away about two weeks ago. I belive he was 71, and had not been in good health for a while. When I met him in 1987, I was asked to view his collection of beads from an Afghan merchant, that he had purchased a few years earlier. He showed them previously to Dr. Dales at UC Berkeley—who, surprisingly, told him they were all fakes (!). The collection ws actually quite good, ranging from ca. 500 BCE to modern times, and containing a lot of beads of several origins and materials—but all having presumably come out of Afghanistan, except for an Egyptian funerary beadwork piece, that many of you have already seen. Dr. Ehrenfeld was not particularly interested in beads, per se, so it's was odd that he invested in whole collections on at least three occassions. For the most part, he had me work with the beads, and turned around and sold them. Many went to Japan. Over the previous five years, he developed an interest in African beads, and invested quite a lot of money in them, with mixed results. Unfortunately, he was sold a LOT of new beads (like from China and India) that he was told were "African," with the implication or statement that they were traditional and old products. This past year, I spent several months, into 2005, preparing an appraisal and catalogue of this collection, for his eventual donation of it to several institutions. Anyway, let's begin with this shot of a group of fake seals from Afghanistan. They are made from agate beads, many or most of which may be old specimens that have been adapted to become "seals," for the purpose of being passed-off as "ancient." We'll get closer and closer as we go along. Note that the majority are spherical, but there are also oblate, oval, and elongated shapes too. Note also the nice variety of qualities of agate, in the greater carnelian family. Jamey All rights reserved by Bead Collector Network and its users |
|
|