Addenda to 'ken-pai': a Glass Bracelet from Yap
De Beauclair, Inez (1962). "Addenda to 'ken-pai': a Glass Bracelet from Yap". Asian Perspectives. 6 (1/2): 232–235. ISSN 0066-8435.
- Has attachment: File:GIMIAA48.pdf
Abstract: Before discussing the occurrence and possible provenance of translucent glass rings, as the one dealt with in my paper (AP, 5(1): 113-115), may I summarize the present state of research on the three kinds of crescent-shaped pieces among the Palauan money, and locally known as bakal (Kubary 1889). Among these the barak and bungau which are yellow and red respectively, prove to be of material identical with that of the opaque glass rings found in the Philippines (Barnett 1949, Force 1959). Their analysis, as reported by these two authors, reveal that the material is the fusion of a clay mixture or silicates and not a mineral (jasper) as Kubary had erroneously assumed. His mistake had long ago been pointed out by Finsch (1893, 1914).* Therefore one may be justified to consider the pieces in question as frag- ments of bracelets (Force 1959). The second type is represented by crescents of translucent glass, bluish or green, which rank among the 'glasses', kaldoyok. Kubary illustrates a bakal kaldoyok in the colour plate which accompanies his study on the native money on Yap and on Palau islands (1889, pI. I: nos. 16, 17, 19, 22). From the curved shape of these pieces, the triangular cross-section and ridges, one may regard them as segments of glass rings, as recently found on Yap, and reported from the Philippines, New Guinea and elsewhere. The most interesting crescentic bakal are doubtless those bearing a coloured design on blue glass and called merrimmer. Ritzenthaler (1954) mentions merimer, of which 70 pieces are still in circulation. Two pieces of this type-one of them apparently of considerable size-are illustrated by Osborne (1958: 171, fig. 16) and described as 'section of triangular curved gorget of deep blue glass with coloured glass scroll-and-dot decoration', and 'a smaller fragment of the same type' respec- tively. Osborne groups with these two decorated pieces another plain 'gorget of greenish glass' and states that all three are sections of arm rings...
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MAG: 2236835353 OpenAlex: W2236835353 CorpusID: 131356173
