Highly Unlikely To Be As Described

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This item is highly unlikely to be what it claims to be and possibly yet another exemplar of an online seller invoking 'the Aboriginal Factor' in order to win a premium. Well typically it doesn't work because buyers tend to do their research and know about the things they collect.

The lack of bids here says most of what needs to be said.

ON eBAY May 2011: "Antique Tasmanian Maireener Shell Aboriginal Necklace"

SELLER'S DESCRIPTION: Item N0. 380338511035

"Antique 1900s Tasmanian Maireener Shell Aboriginal Necklace Purple

This wonderful Guaranteed Antique 1900s Tasmanian Maireener Shell Aboriginal Necklace in the rare Purple Iridescent colour is a brilliant example of such shell necklaces. The shells are a wonderful lustrous iridescent purple colour and are in exquisite condition with only a very few missing their points. The shells are well strung on a fine purple silk string and measure 42 cm (overall 168 cm if a single line).

Unfortunately my pictures do not capture the beautiful iridescent glow of these shells. I am loathe to sell this piece but believe it should be in the hands of a real collector for its colour rarity and age.

Please study the array of photos as they are part of the description and ?show the wonderful condition, patina and character better than I can ?explain. Measures: 42 cm long (quadrupled) and 188 cm (single line), shell size approximately 1cm Weight: 35 grams."

SELLER'S DESCRIPTION: Item N0. 380338515166

"Antique 1850s Tasmanian Maireener Shell Aboriginal Necklace Green


This wonderful Guaranteed Antique 1850s Tasmanian Maireener Shell Aboriginal Necklace in the rare Green Mauve Iridescent colour is a brilliant example of such shell necklaces. The shells are the finest and smallest shells I have seen in these type of necklaces and are a wonderful lustrous iridescent green and mauve colour and are in exquisite condition with none missing their points. The shells are well strung on a fine white silk string and measure 62 cm (overall 122cm if a single line).

Unfortunately my pictures do not capture the beautiful iridescent glow of these shells.
I am loathe to sell this piece but believe it should be in the hands of a real collector for its colour rarity and age.

Please study the array of photos as they are part of the description and ?show the wonderful condition, patina and character better than I can ?explain. Measures: 87 cm long (doubled) and 174 cm (single line) shell size approximately 0.3 - 0.5cm Weight: 10 grams"

The seller has not provided, or offered to provide, any evidence that these necklaces are of Tasmanian Aboriginal cultural production. Without such evidence these necklaces cannot be automatically assumed to be "Aboriginal" as claimed in the description.

Sellers who claim "Aboriginality" for these necklaces seem to be attempting to cash in on the premium contemporary Tasmanian Aboriginal makers are winning for their necklaces. If they are indeed Aboriginal cultural products there needs to be evidence/provenance to support the claim.

So buyers looking for Aboriginal cultural production should beware. For more information go to:

• Website # 1: http://tasmanianshellnecklaceresearch.blogspot.com/
• Website # 2: http://qvmagstrunghistories.blogspot.com/
• Website # 3: http://truganininecklaces.blogspot.com/

eBAY Find – June 2010 USA - maireener shells

SELLER'S NOTES:

• #2_ Vintage Tasmanian Maireener Shell Lei Necklace Iridescent Pink
  This is a beautiful vintage Tasmanian Maireener Shell lei necklace. The shells are strung on thread. I do not know if these shells were dyed [almost certainly they have been] or not, but they awesome shades of iridescent pink and blue green colors ... It is in excellent condition and I do not see any broken or missing shells. It measures approximately 34 inches long from end to end ... SOLD FOR: US $152.49 = Approx.AU $175.32

• #3 _Vintage Tasmanian Maireener Shell Lei Necklace Iridescent White
  
  This is a beautiful vintage Tasmanian Maireener Shell lei necklace. The shells are strung on thread. I do not know if these shells were dyed or not, [unlikely to have been]but they awesome shades of iridescent blue green colors ... It is in excellent condition and I do not see any broken or missing shells. It measures approximately 34 inches long from end to end.... SOLD FOR: US $149.99 Approx. AU $172.44

• #1 _ SOLD FOR: US $247.50 Approx. AU $284.55

The most interesting thing about this eBAY sale is that these maireener shell necklaces were described as they were ... "Vintage Tasmanian Maireener Shell Lei Necklace " ... They seem to have come to the seller's possession via West Coast USA sources and it is possible that one way or another the Hawaiian links have been subliminally made.

eBAY FIND: SHONKY PRODUCT

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This eBAY find is at once disturbing and reassuring. Disturbing, in the sense that the seller here has no discrimination and is willing to do anything to attract attention to a shonky product. Reassuring, in so much as pulling all the key word tricks here has failed to win the level of bidding real maireener shells attract – on other occasions like shells have failed to win a bid at all. Clearly, the buyers of these necklaces know what they are looking at and what it is they are looking for. Other sellers could do well to learn from this failed entry.

These shells keep turning up and nobody seems to have worked out just where they are from. The Philippines is the best candidate thus far. They are tropical and not from Tasmanian waters. Tasmanian Aboriginal maireener makers would feel insulted to have this work attributed to them as they take great care about the collection and preparation of their shells. While it is possible that they may have dyed their shells at some time there is no evidence of it – anecdotal, circumstantial or concrete.

Also, the seller dated this necklace at 1860/70 and there is a fundamental problem with this it would seem. It is very likely that this necklace was dyed with aniline dyes but these dyes were not invented until the 1890s. Arriving at a date of manufacture for an object often relies upon intuition but here invention ans aspiration seems to have been the main factors informing the intuition. If you do not know, then it is usually better to say so.

If this seller had done some research (any research?) this description could not have been used and the Internet makes this research very easy to do – simply Google 'maireener' necklace to start.

Found on eBAY: USA - maireener shells

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Ended: 14 June, 2010 – 10:13:24 AEST – 14 bids

Winning bid:US $292.00 – AU $343.85

This necklace is typical of the necklaces that have ambiguous authenticity and circumstantially becoming less likely to be made by a Tasmanian Aboriginal maker. Here again there is the use of 'maireener' as an eBAY key word to bring these necklaces to the attention to eBAY buyers who are now paying more attention to them. This necklace seems to be of natural colour and at the same time of a colour type that it seems was sometimes dyed.

eBAY Find – May 2010 UK - maireener shells

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SOLD: 4Bids Winning bid: £170.00 Approx AU $298.14

Clearly this necklace has been dyed and in most other respects bears the hallmarks of a commercially produced 'Hobart Necklace'. The presence of a clasp reinforces this but it is hard to tell from the photographs if this thread is still dyed as it seem s that these necklaces were dyed after stringing. Almost all the circumstantial evidence points to this necklace being a Hobart Necklace and it being quite unlikely for it to have had a Tasmanian Aboriginal maker as is suggested here.

Typically all these necklaces were assumed to be "Tasmanian Aboriginal Shell Necklaces" but now the evidence suggests that where there is no provenance to verify Aboriginal authenticity it is unsafe to assume Aboriginal authenticity albeit that it is made from Tasmanian maireener shells.

eBAY Find – May 2010 Canada - maireener

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This necklace is 1.8 metres long and one of the longer versions of this class of necklace. These shells appear to be naturally coloured iridescent maireener shell necklaces. It is a typical exemplar of the necklaces that are increasingly appearing on the international – Australia, USA & UK – 'antique' market. Most seem to turning up on eBAY and found via the Key Word "maireener".

eMAIL Alert: maireener shell necklace collection via eBAY & Western Australia

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JW6710, the eBAYER here, brings some special knowledge to this collection, namely qualifications and experience as a jewellery designer. The fact that she operates from an out of the way place says something about contemporary cultural production and the unlikely places eBAY reaches.

JW6710 has supplied these images of a sample of her collection not only as a demonstration of what can be found on eBAY but also the diversity of maireener shell necklaces. From all accounts these necklace come 'provenance free' and one assumes these items come to light via clearance sales, estate auctions and the like. Apparently they are kind of things that hang around in bottom drawers as memoirs of the past and far too precious to throw away – albeit that very often they are sold for very little.

NECKLACE # 6: The circumstantial evidence is that all of these shell necklaces are quintessentially Tasmaniana but their 'cultural context' is nonetheless ambiguous. All but #6 are typical of the maireener necklaces turning up that bear all the hallmarks of being 'Hobart Necklaces'. The #6 necklace is somewhat curious in that it is made using juvenile shells which in turn would mean that the effort in stringing is considerably more than 'the typical Hobart Necklaces'.

Extrapolated from this are the facts that given that commercially harvested shells were paid for by the quart they may well have been less attractive to harvest. Also, given the additional number of shells in a necklace they would be more time consuming to string. If payment for stringing was paid by the piece these necklaces may have been more expensive. Earnest Mawle's report 1918 makes no mention of the use of juvenile shells – this does not by necessity discount their use in Hobart Necklaces however.

In Launceston in the 1940s/50s maireener necklaces made with juvenile shells were available and circumstantially it seems that these necklaces were sourced in the Bass Strait Furneax Islands rather than Hobart – and say the Bertie May operation. Albeit speculative, there is a first hand reports of necklaces made with juvenile shells being purchased at Wonderland Brisbane St. Launceston 1940s and circumstantially these necklaces are most likely to be of Aboriginal production on the Furneax Islands.

Thank you JW6710 for sharing a part of your collection!

eMAIL Alert: maireener shell necklace via eBAY & Western Australia

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This necklace was bought via eBAY, from USA and it came with with no history or provenance. The owner trades on eBAY, lives in Western Australia and has inquired of some eBAY sellers who have said that "the GIs coming back from the islands WW2, bought back all sorts of shell necklaces with them."

The owner – a professional jeweller and collector of maireener shell necklaces – says that this necklace is dyed and that would make it consistent with the Mary Martin Necklaces circa 1900 to 1920s. Also, it may well be consistent with the necklaces that were exported to Hawaii from Tasmania around the turn of the 20th Century by the Martins.

This necklace may also have been made in Honolulu at the Martin's operation there using shells imported from Tasmania and local labour. The shells are clearly Tasmanian and given the paucity of concrete information and the growing number of options, the necklace is the quinessentual exemplar of the ambiguous maireener shell necklace. Here, Tasmanian Aboriginal production seems highly unlikely however.

Later necklaces were dyed but it seems that with the 'older examples' the dying was more subtle than with those made post WW2 in Tasmania. This example would appear to be older than post WW2 necklaces.

If this stringing is 'original' it is consistent with the kind of way some Hawaiian shell lei are strung and it may have been produced by the Martin family either in Hobart or Honolulu for the Hawaiian market.

eBAY Find – May 2010 UK

NOTE: This seller seems to be alert to the discourse relative to the the eBAY Key Words used to alert buyers to this class of necklace. Notably the necklace's 'cultural ambiguity' is acknowledged and "Aboriginal" does not appear in the description.

Found on eBAY: Seed & Shell Necklaces – South Aust.

fromj2u

These 2 necklaces are interesting in respect to the ambiguity that surrounds them and that they are submerged within. There is now clear evidence available that shows these so called "Tasmanian Apple Seed Necklaces" and other objects made from these seeds are in fact made from Ipil-ipil seeds and in almost all cases, made in The Philippines and NOT Tasmania. Clearly the seller here was unsure and was relying upon the understanding prevailing in Tasmania until recently and they were questioning that understanding by including ?marks in the keyword description.

The shell necklace is something else. It is unlikely to be Tasmanian but it will be possible to identify the shells and locate their areas of distribution. If it turns out that they are Tasmainan this necklace may provide a clue to the dimension and nature of commercial shell jewellery production in Tasmania late 19th C until the mid 20th C. There is every likelihood that it is an aberration. Again. the seller was not attempting to deceive and was questioning their interpretation with a ?mark.

These necklaces were purchased by the network 1st time around.
The sale was cancelled and the items were
relisted with a better outcome for the seller
the 2nd time around

Found on eBAY: Shell Necklace – UK

This necklace is not as described albeit that the seller seems to have chosen the language they've used rather carefully. They have used "key words – Aboriginal & maireener" to attract attention to their entry. These key words seem to have won considerable currency in the past 12 to 18 moths on eBAY. So it is worth doing some unpicking.

maireener is a Tasmanian Aboriginal (palawa-kani) word that in its contemporary context means a group of shells 'rainbow kelp shells' – Phasianotrochus irisodontes, Phasianotrochus eximius Phasianotrochus apicinus – used and prized by Tasmanian Aboriginal shell necklacemakers. As an eBAY key word it is increasingly used euphemistically by sellers to describe almost any small iridescent/opalescent in a shell necklace. This 'eBAY euphemism' becomes deceptive and is arguably used to 'attract' buyers looking for a particular aesthetic. On eBAY the word has clearly entered the lexicon and has become a powerful, and ambiguous, key word – buyers beware.

Aboriginal (first; original; indigenous; primitive; native) is an interesting eBAY key word. It may be claimed as a 'global' word carrying the meanings that it does with the subtext 'exotic and other.' In an eBAY key word context, "Aboriginal" typical refers generically to 'Australian Aboriginal' and in relation to shell necklaces it evokes 'Tasmanian Aboriginal' . The word "aboriginal" (lower case spelling) is ambiguous and "Aboriginal" has become the convention to denote Australian Aboriginal. Nonetheless, as an eBAY key word it is ambiguous and often used that way by sellers looking to attract buyers with a particular sensibility. Interestingly when doing so, and deceptively, they turn these buyers off!

This eBAY entry is an example of the key words being used as euphemistic baits for buyers looking for the 'exotic and other'. Is the wording deceptive, naive, ill-informed and deliberate? It is an open question! Let's say all of the above but in different ways at different times and in different contexts.

GOOGLE KEY WORDS: eBAY, 120561637648, Aboriginal, Tasmania, Tasmanian, shell necklace, Ilkley, United Kingdom, vintage, antique, maireener, pearlescent, iridescent, opalescent, rainbow kelp shell, deceptive.

Found on eBAY: Shell Necklaces – Adelaide Aus

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Winning Bid: AU $175.50 13Bids
eBAY#: 260591976842CLICK ON AN IMAGE TO ENLARGE

Winning Bid AU$233.50 29Bids
eBAY #: 260591981036These three listings on eBAY are more interesting together than individually. Looking at the use of the word "maireener" first it seems to be used to invoke 'Aboriginality' but it also seems to have entered the lexicon with the implied meaning 'small irridecent shell for necklace making'.

There is little doubt the true maireener shells did indeed come from Tasmania given that these shells were harvested commercially in Tasmania in the later part of the 19th C up until approx 1960. It is now known that this was not part of the Tasmanian Aboriginal people's cultural production at that time – albeit that they did make shell necklace mimicked by the commercial producers harvesting these shells.

The likelihood of any of these necklaces being made by a Tasmanian Aboriginal maker is very slim. The necklace described a being made of "natural" shell – eBAY #: 260591981036 – may predate the one described as being dyed – this necklace appears to have been dyed also albit more subtly. The former could POSSIBLY have been made by the Martin family's Hobart/Honolulu operation anytime up until circa 1930s. The dyed necklace may have been made by the Bertie May operation in Hobart 1940s >>1960s – eBAY#: 260591976842.

Both could be described as classic Hobart Necklaces.

The necklace with glass beads is quite unlikely to have been of Tasmanian origin EXCEPT in the case that it was made in Tasmania from imported materials and it is known that tropical shells were being imported into Tasmania for the purposes of "shell craft" around the turn of the 20th C – the shells appear to be tropical. Likewise it is highly unlikely that Aboriginal makers had anything to do with this necklace.

Therefore the authenticity of these necklaces must be regarded as being quite ambiguous.

Dyed maireener Necklace

This necklace is entirely as described and no claims were made for that could not be substaniated. There are two obvious options for its origin. The first being the Hobart souvenir trader Bertie May who is known to have produced dyed necklaces such as this. He was active 1940s>>1960. The other option being a maker linked to the Martin family who started producing shell necklaces in Hobart in 1875 and were known tom be trading in 1927.

Earnest Mawle's Report of 1918 is a key reference that contextualises to some extent the 'industry' that produced Hobart Necklaces. Mawle's report refers to the dying of shells. There is beginning to be increasing evidence that Bertie May's production may be able to be distinguished from the dyed shell necklaces of producers/marketers like the Martins.

May's dyeing seems to be more intense in its colouration while necklaces that seem to be older than his are less intense and somewhat more subtle. There is no evidence that Tasmanian Aboriginal makers dyed their shells but it cannot be dismissed out of hand. On the balance of probability, this example seems to be older than May's production and more likely to be of non-Aboriginal production than Tasmanian Aboriginal.

Like all such necklaces there is quite a bit of ambiguity about this example.

eBAY Find – April 2010 UK - maireener shells

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SOLD FOR AU $174.25

COMMENT: To claim Aboriginal authenticity sellers need to rely upon more than scant circumstantial evidence and indeed provide sound provenance to back up the assertion. There does not seem to be such provenance here. However, the shells in this necklace may well have been gleaned from a Hobart Necklace. Again, this necklace's description suggests that Aboriginality, if it can be established , adds value to these necklaces and that the word 'maireener' has currency on eBAY.

eBAY Find – April 2010 UK

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This necklace opens up some interesting areas of speculation. If it turns out that shells are identifiable as Tasmanian it may be linked to the necklace depicted in the 'Butterfield Photograph' [ link 1 ] • [ link 2 ] and if it is it may tell us something more about 'Hobart Necklaces' in Tasmania. If the shells can be identified as coming from the UK as implied by the seller here it may tell us something about the trade Hobart Necklaces were a part of.

Watch this space!

Alerted by: PD-SB.US

Found on eBAY: Ambiguous Authentication - maireener shells

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Found on eBAY: NOT a maireener, NOT Tasmanian, NOT made by a Tasmanian Aboriginal maker.

Apparently someone told the seller here that one the same that sold for over £100. If that was so then maybe it would have been good to quote the eBAY item number. The good thing about eBAY is that it is a very good research tool.

Necklaces made with Tasmanian maireener shells do quite often sell for over £100 and contemporary maireener shell necklaces made by Aboriginal makers sell for well over £100.

So you have to wonder if the one that apparently sold for over £100 was the same as this one. Without the evidence it is impossible to say. But clearly such necklace's 'Aboriginality' does seem to add value to them.

Anyway the buyers are able to do their research and this one didn't attract a bid let alone reach the seller's reserve.

Found on eBAY: USA - maireener shells

Clearly the only thing that is credible about this necklace is that it is described as having been painted. It may be of 'Tasmanian origin' but that is unlikely and almost certainly it is not of Tasmanian Aboriginal cultural production – contemporary or vintage. The shells may well have originated in Tasmania but that does not by itself imply Aboriginal cultural production.

eBAY FIND- April 2010 USA - maireener shells

NOTE: The necklace above has been relisted and redescribed removing the word "Aboriginal" from the title and description. This reflects the ambiguity of the piece and indeed it may well be a Hobart Necklace circa early 1900s and even one that found its way to the USA via Honolulu.

These finds are continuing evidence that a great many of these necklaces were made and many more than there are likely to have been Tasmanian Aboriginal makers to produce them. – albeit that there were clearly some. It is unclear how the necklaces made as "Hobart Necklaces" in the late 1800s and early 1900s came to be understood as "Aboriginal Shell Necklaces".

eBAY is most likely the vehicle via which the word maireener (the Tasmanian Aboriginal word for the shells and sometimes the necklaces made from them) has entered the 'global' lexicon for these particular shells and seemingly increasingly used by default for all small iridescent shells used for necklace making – Tasmanian & other.

They are also evidence of the global carelessness for the cultural cargo "Tasmanian Aboriginal Shell Necklaces" carry. This is so even though it is increasingly clear that the Hobart Necklaces are blatant mimics of their 'Aboriginal prototypes'. Unless "Aboriginal" carries some kind of cultural cargo that adds value to the necklace it is difficult to explain why these mimics so readily win 'quasie Aboriginal status'.