For the purposes of the Gallery, the term “Plains Indian necklace” stands for strings of beads (glass, stone, bone, etc.) hanging below the clavicle line (since the shorter length is chokers).
The construction and design of historic Plains Indian necklaces is quite primitive from the point of view of a modern jewellery, and there is nothing remarkable in them, except for a few moments:
1) the extant originals are very few in number in order to summarize all the possible variety of construction and designs, especially given the fact that many necklaces were made not for decoration, but for ritual purposes, often ad hoc — just to enhance the postmortal magic (medicine);
2) the main material used for making beads - of natural origin (animal parts, natural stones) plus various components that the Indians received as a result of the exchange with white — exchange beads (Dutch, Venetian, Bohemian, etc.), details of mechanisms.
3) most of them are made with a great taste and an amazing combination of different colors.
All of the above means that the original Indian beads are very expensive and you can buy them only at auctions in an uncompromising struggle with experienced collectors.
