What original stones did Uzbek jewelers prefer?

What original stones did Uzbek jewelers prefer?

The most diverse types of jewellery on display in the Russian Museum of Ethnography (RME) collection are Bukhara, Samarkand and Tashkent jewellery, and to a lesser extent jewellery of the cities of Fergana Valley.

What original stones did Uzbek jewelers prefer?

By contrast, the collection of jewellery from Khorezm is limited, but each one is very unique: by the beginning of the 20th century it was rarely produced, and those that remained in families were bought up by collectors, who were amazed by its very unique archaic form.

Uzbek jewellers used various techniques: casting, forging, engraving, embossing, granulation as well as openwork and ground-supported filigree. The main material used was silver, which the people endowed with a sacred purpose, it was considered “clean” and was supposed to protect wearers from “the evil eye”. Gilding was used only on separate parts of the product, or foil-like thin gold plates were attached to the metal or mastic base.

Lal (ruby, a garnet or any red stone), beryl from colorless to yellow and green shades, pearls, carnelians, turquoise (or turquoise imitating mastic), and corals were used for inserts and pendants. According to ancient beliefs, each one, depending on their color and quality, symbolized various good wishes such as wishes for prosperity and wellbeing, health and love, fertility, and wishes for a large family.

The combination of different stones and minerals in a piece of jewellery was believed to strengthen its magical quality. Often in jewellery, even expensive jewellery, simple colored glass was inserted as an addition to the “color magic” of the stones, since the emphasis was not so much on quality and cost of the materials, but rather on the sacred meaning of the decoration.

You can learn more about this topic in the book-album "The Collection of the Russian Museum of Ethnography" (Volume II) (St. Petersburg, Russia) from the series "The Cultural Legacy of Uzbekistan". 

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