Raw turquoises
This is a necklace which I bought when the stones were real and not "tourist" stones
The earliest evidence of turquoise gemstones comes from ancient Egyptian tombs, which contain elaborate turquoise jewelry dating back to 3000 BCE. Egyptians set turquoise in gold necklaces and rings, used it as inlay, and carved it into scarabs.
The oldest turquoise mines are in the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt. Egyptians called turquoise mefkat, which meant “joy” and “delight.”
Ancient Persians decorated extensively with turquoise, often engraving it with Arabic script. Turquoise covered palace domes because its sky-blue color represented heaven. This later inspired the use of turquoise in buildings like the Taj Mahal. You can read more about this special stone which also was found in Arizona and used by the Native Americens here.
When I first went to Egypt in 2001, I always bought some turquoise jewelry.
At that time you still could find the real stones to a very cheap price, despite the haggling, and also handmade together with silver. Today you have to pay attention because they use a normal sandstone and paint it turquoise. At the latest you realize it when you want to clean the silver around the stone and the color disappears ! It happened to me once with a bracelet !
Apparently you can verify if it's real turquoise or not with the help of a lighter or a candle. If the stone remains turquoise in the heat it's real turquoise. Otherwise the color would change.
I have never tried it but other tourists did.
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These are pretty.
ReplyDeleteI love turquoise. I have some real pieces and tourist pieces. You can generally tell from the price. Your necklace is beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know that about how to test to confirm it's truly turquoise. Very interesting fact to remember!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing at https://image-in-ing.blogspot.com/2022/11/some-things-im-thankful-for_098575593.html.
I love turquoise! That is also one of my favorite colors. I didn't know that about how to verify its authenticity either.
ReplyDeleteI have some jewelry in that stone, bu the nice ring I had, (From The Netherlands) is way too small for my arthritic knuckles, and to enlarge it, well then it won't stay put and it would be under my finger...LOL!