Specific Dutch regional jewelry

This type of necklace reminds me of the days that my interest in antique jewelry was just burgeoning. One of the first books, if not the first book, I bought was about jewelry that was worn with the specific local Dutch costumes. Till the beginning of the 20th century, in some Dutch villages, people were recognisable by their clothes and jewelry. In the Netherlands many villages had their own costume. Only by looking at a piece of jewelry or clothing, experts can tell from which region people were, which faith they had and even their marital status.

The type of necklace here is also depicted in that book and is made in Walcheren, Zeeland (the Netherlands). The closure is in 14K two tone gold (red and yellow) and it has four strings of facetted garnet beads. The closure itself is skillfully embellished with one big and 24 smaller rose cut garnets plus six smaller garnets at the sides. Necklaces like this were worn by women of all ages as part of the "klederdracht" (local dress in its distinctive style).

Today there are nearly any people left who wear the dress of this local distinctive style. While the youngsters do not wear it at all anymore the older people do wear it occasionally. And in 2003 the last two men wearing the traditional clothing died and most probably in another 10 till 15 years no woman will be wearing it anymore either.

Click the picture to get to the descriptive page of this jewel.

Antiqualy yours,
The Adin team
www.adin.be

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