Indian gold

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hi all, I faintly recall a thread about this, but can’t find it- I’m
working with a gallery dealing in African and tribal art, and
setting seals and stones for them in 18k gold. They’ve given me 18k
gold beads which I believe are Indian to incorporate in some of the
earrings, and the alloy is a much warmer yellow than what I’ve found
available from my usual suppliers here in the US. I abraded one to
see if it was depleted or plated and it doesn’t seem to be. I’m
wondering if anyone can tell me anything about alloys commonly used
in India and Africa and if I’m not up for doing my own alloying,
what are my options to get this warmer color gold? Anyone else have
this mismatch problem? Any advice on how to proceed would be
greatly appreciated. Thanks so much, Julia Turner

2

I do get a lot on Indian pieces to work on, mostly made up of 22k in
a quite low melting alloy. I have no clue what the alloy is made of,
it’s almost always plated with 24k to hide the lighter colored
solder. I have also seen truly remarkable Indian jewelry, detail that
borders on the seemingly impossible craft, yet they use charcoal pits
to fuse the hundreds of elements together. I know nothing of African
jewelry though.

Jeffrey

3

Indian golds quite often contain zinc - which accounts for the low
melting points of the material and the odd properties it has.

Tony Konrath
Key West Florida 33040

4

You might want to try David H. Fell company, I don’t know their
off hand, but they have about a zillion different alloys
they use. If you had a sample you could send them they might be able
to match it. Also, you could have a piece x-rayed, that would tell
you the exact proportions of material in it. I tell you though,
those countries have no reservations about using nasty things like
lead and arsenic to get the right color. In my experience, the
prettier something is, usually the deadlier it is. You may not want
to use the stuff any more once you find out what’s in it. — david thorp

5

Of what I know today India is one of the major in exporting the gold
in form of jewelry with all the precious stones, diamond, enamel etc
and it meets all the international standards including no NASTY
stuff. It is too sweeping a statement.

6 
   Of what I know today India is one of the major in exporting the
gold in form of jewelry with all the precious stones, diamond,
enamel etc and it meets all the international standards including
no NASTY stuff. It is too sweeping a statement. 

 	And I have a friend who has done business in new and antique

jewelry from India, and he has had pieces of high karat jewelery
that had a steel core. Richard Hart