No pun intended but is a little hard to draw the conclusion that they are mostly acrylic coral imitation, specially with high official presentation weapons, high rank officers or even sultans, furthermore when in many cases we refer to years 1600s... Later examples I wouldn’t doubt, just like bakelite and vulcanite embedded hilts past 19th century in Europe or "a la European" fashion including Ottoman...
Arabians claim the same about red coral; see even today the Oman jewelry, I personally own one, of silver aliage and red coralite beads...
The so-called "fire coral" is was most soughtafter coralite, which needed no dying. Most examples are from Tibet, Nepal and Bhutan.
We also have to make the clear distinction between coralites and carnelian, the later was easily mistaken due to its resemblance, it comes not from a living creature but rather a gem, a crystal like chalcedony. Funny enough the word chalcedony comes from the name of a Greek town in Asia Minor (Wikipedia).
The carnelian was used on large scale for same purposes and its frequently seen yataghan hilt mounted on silver and ivory.
Last edited by Radu Transylvanicus; 13th January 2006 at 10:28 PM.
|