710 - Amber bracelet of 835 silver, five rectangular amber cabochons, pierced ring links

Amber bracelet of 835 silver, five rectangular amber cabochons, pierced ring links 835 silver and amber. Amber bracelet, fineness mark “835” on the rim of a setting; wide link bracelet of five amber cabochons of rectangular basic form in bezel settings, yellow to cognac-coloured, partly cloudy, alternating with four pierced intermediate links, each of three rows of small rings with applied small silver balls; push-in clasp. Good condition. 19.5x3.3 cm (LxW). Amber is still washed ashore on the North Sea and Baltic coasts today, most abundantly after winter storms. As early as the Neolithic, amber was worked into beads and amulets, and in the first millennium BC the Amber Road carried it from the Baltic to the Mediterranean; Ovid called it the “tears of the gods”. Among the Romans the “Gold of the North” was a luxury good: Pliny the Elder reports that a small human figure of amber fetched a higher price than a strong, healthy human being. Today the German Amber Museum in the monastery at Ribnitz-Damgarten devotes an exhibition to the Gold of the North, from the Roman necklace to the modern piece of jewellery. Link bracelets with rectangular amber cabochons in silver settings are a widespread form of amber jewellery from the Baltic coast.