HOBART NECKLACES – Ambiguous Authenticity - maireener shells

PROVENANCE INFORMATION: There are two necklaces here and they are both in a private collection – one is broken, one is complete. They were purchased from a jeweller’s shop in Criterion Street in Hobart about 20 years ago. They are possibly/probably two of the ‘wholesale’ Martin necklaces. The strings are at least 100 years old ... Source TMAG Hobart Pers Com ... The shells are almost certainly juvenile maireeners (Rainbow Kelp shells) Phasianotrochus irisodontes and typical of the shells coming to light in the USA and UK ...

NOTE: In the family of the owner of these necklaces there are two more necklaces where there is strong circumstantial evidence that in turn lends strong circumstantial provenance to those necklaces – not these – being of Tasmanian Aboriginal cultural production – NW Tasmania.