Sulawesi Bracelet with Gold Details

Tulang Naga Bracelet with Sulawesi box clasp, with applied granulation in rose and yellow gold.

The filigree ornamentation of Southern Sulawesi is especially delicate, and among the most delightful in the region. Plant and flower motifs made of fine metal wires were woven into complex patterns imitating the abundant local flora and fauna. The symbolic richness of these ornaments is tightly related to beliefs about human and nature's fertility, the ancestral realm, and creatures inhabiting the underworld.Small bracelets were worn in abundance, or interchanged with long cuff bracelets richly adorned with spherical, triangular, or pyramidal projections.