amber as a teething aid baby teething home | Ask MetaFilter

Hmmm…as an antique dealer, I always look to the documented history and current availability of an object when someone claims it’s an “ancient European” blah blah or any kind of “ages ancient practice”. For example, when things like the Belly Bandit came on the market not too long ago and talked about Eastern Practices and such, really a haramaki or sarashi wasn’t always particularly for that purpose. (I’m trying not to derail here.) And Western hospitals and additional businesses have offered post partum abdominal binders, though unglamorous, for ages. So, yes, there is such a business, but it’s stretching a bit and charitable a dull item a glamorous history because …why?

Which brings me to the additional part of life an antique dealer – sales. Some salespeople/businesses will aver anything to make money. None of the companies selling these beads seem to offer specific evidence of which European culture, or the origins beyond that it’s maybe, “Baltic” or “Lithuanian” amber or what have you. As a jewellery dealer, I knew to be careful of things like copal or to look for amber that’s been reconstituted or treated in innumerable ways, and I know that amber isn’t currently trendy or rare or expensive. It’s hard to sell, because it’s a specific taste. Which is how it can be so affordable, and these necklaces are not just hunks of raw amber that were found lying around and lightly polished so they’re all “natural” and stuff – which makes me call healing properties into question, and makes me wonder why it took them so long to realize that tired new moms would be the perfect market to target for something that’s not very salable on the secondary market, let alone modern retail.

But, let’s use recent enough history:

in Victorian times, rattles with teethers of ivory, mother of pearl, coral or bone and even amber were often agreed to children for amusement and for teething purposes. But, for, you know, primarily for holding or chewing – and superstitious beliefs where held (I like the term sympathetic magic used there) that the materials used also conferred healing powers or warded off evil spirits or symbolized things too. Beaded necklaces were often wishes for a long life, with each bead representing a year, with seed pearls for innocence and coral for blood/warding off evil spirits.

Whether or not Baltic amber “contains Succinic Acid which is a natural component of plant tissues. It is known to have a positive effect on our cellular metabolism”, which to me, sounds a bit like New Age Hooey – public in persons days wouldn’t have known stuff like that. They’d just have some eerie belief that came from amber life light, or warm, or static-conducting.

Or, let’s apply another argument: In my years of experience of handling antique amber necklaces, what seems to be the case, is that near none of them were made in children’s sizes that have lingered to this day to be very present on the market (though seed pearl and coral necklaces were very well loved, and still abound, as they were hoped to bestow a long life on the child, as with persons very long Christening gowns). To my knowledge, when used for “healing”, they were worn for additional purposes, like throat healing – but more often the amber was agreed as a tincture or ointment – not worn. And jewellery in history was for more privileged public, even amber. So, when I go searching through antique jewellery dealers’ stock looking for antique amber necklaces for children, and there are very precious few, it tells me that this wasn’t common, widely-held or done frequently enough to have merit as even an ancient wives tale.

Here’s what seems to be a excellent argument.
posted by peagood at 7:42 AM on June 4 [9 favorites]

You are not logged in, any login or make an account to post comments

More:
the dental clinic