Amazing Turkoman Adornment

Amazing Turkoman AdornmentThis is an amazing piece of beautiful Turkoman art with a bit of a mystery thrown in! The piece is a large flat metal disk with an intricate repeating pattern incised into the metal. The green piece in the middle appears to be glass. And the back of the piece has a large pin, likely used to attached it either through a button hole or piece of fabric. (Personally, we love seeing it used as a scarf clip!) This piece is not for the faint of heart it's

This is an amazing piece of beautiful Turkoman art -- with a bit of a mystery thrown in!  The piece is a large flat metal disk with an intricate repeating pattern incised into the metal.  The green piece in the middle appears to be glass.  And the back of the piece has a large pin, likely used to attached it either through a button hole or piece of fabric.  (Personally, we love seeing it used as a scarf clip!)  

This piece is not for the faint of heart -- it's the size of a small plate, measuring about 5 inches in diameter.  It's also relatively heavy, weighing a hefty 437 grams.  It's very difficult to tell exactly what the metal is made of, but it probably has only a small amount (if any) of silver.  So it's the decorate and beauty that sets the price of this one, rather than the inherent value of the metal.  

But the really cool mystery about this piece is the engraving on the back.  The name "Dolores" and then a last name starting with the letter "A".  The calligraphy is just beautiful.  To the best of our knowledge Dolores in not a traditional Turkoman name, but was maybe engraved post-manufacture?  Looks Spanish to us, but who knows?  Anyway, cool mystery!