1: This ring, a Kazakh ‘matchmaker’s ring’ is the largest type of ring the tribal art of the world has ever produced. It used to be that, among Kazakhs, in order to initiate a wedding various female marriage mediators were employed. If the arrangements were successful, the marriage mediator was given, after the wedding, a ‘giant ring’ such as this as a present from the mother of the groom. For this reason it is called a ‘matchmaker’s ring’. The two rings on the back (for two fingers) symbolise the joining of the two spouses. The present ‘matchmaker’s ring’ has been crafted very much in the style of the Kazakhs: it is made of silver, decorated with faux granulation and with four, red underlaid ‘glass windows’.
Diameter: 7.5 cm x 7 cm (ring surface).
2: A necklace with heart-shaped pendants and three spherical bells hanging from it. All made of silver and partly gilded. The pendant displays a geometrically decorated edge, two hemispheric crests and a red underlaid ‘glass window’.
Height: 8 cm; width: 5.5 cm (the pendant alone). Both objects in this mixed lot are old and in excellent condition. They show good traces of use but no damage.
Between c. 1900 and the early 20th century. (ME)

Provenance:
Viennese private collection.