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My great Grandfather was working for Chrysler in India and my great Grandmother started my Siam jewelry collecting with a pair of beautiful oval earrings and a fan brooch. The more I look at each piece, the more I realized, I have truly enjoyed the fine details of my Siam sterling silver jewelry collection and am eager to find more. Hooray for our current auction with two stunning pieces.
Siam, a country that changed it’s name to “Thailand” in 1939, has a long tradition of fine metal and silver works. The silver work of Siamese and Thai jewelry is special. Siamese silver jewelry found today is mostly “niello” or “nielloware” style, created by carving out areas of the silver and baking a sulfur metals powder in the carved out areas.
The technique involves carving a particular character or pattern into the silver, leaving the figure raised by carving out the "background". Then the niello inlay is filled in the "background". After being baked in an open fire, the alloy hardens. It then is sanded smooth and buffed. Finally, a silver artisan adds minute details by hand. Filigree was often used for additional ornamentation as it is with our bracelet. Nielloware is classified as only being black and silver colored. Other colored jewelry originating during this time uses a different technique and is not considered niello. You may have seen similar pieces with a white or red background.
Many of the characters shown in nielloware are characters originally found in the Hindu legend Ramayana.The Thai version is called Ramakien. Important Thai cultural symbols were also frequently used. Erawan, the king of the Elephants is featured on the brooch.
The bracelet in our auction has Mekkala, the goddess of lightning on several of the bracelet panels, and Ramasoon, the god of thunder are on the other panels. Mekkala is the most common character found on Siam silver jewelry and incorrectly called a Thai dancing girl.
Collecting Siam Silver jewelry is a growing hobby with many jewelry enthusiasts, we hope you will agree our Siam Sterling is stunning.
Happy Bidding!
Liz
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