When a Naga warrior wore this necklace, it announced everything: status, wealth, the community he belonged to, the ceremonies he had participated in. The bronze bells rang with each step. The shell panels caught the light. The ten rows of red glass — the most prestigious color in Naga bead culture — fell across his chest like a declaration. This piece still carries all of that. Antique Naga Tribal Necklace — Ten-Row Pectoral · Nagaland, India · Mid 20th Century A complete and intact antique Naga pectoral necklace from Nagaland, northeastern India, dating to approximately the mid-20th century. Constructed from chank shell (Turbinella pyrum) shoulder plates and tube bead panels, ten rows of antique red glass trade beads with multicolor glass accents, and cast bronze bells. Length: 92 cm / 36 inches. Weight: 466 grams. An exceptional example of Naga material culture, complete in its original form. — DETAILS — — Type: Pectoral necklace (worn across the chest and shoulders) — Origin: Nagaland, northeastern India — Date: Mid 20th century, c. 1940s–1960s — Length: 92 cm / 36 inches — Weight: 466 grams Materials: — Shoulder plates: Chank shell (Turbinella pyrum) — two triangular plates, hand-worked — Bead panels: Chank shell tube beads arranged in structured horizontal rows on leather backing — three panels per side — Main body: Ten individual rows of antique red glass trade beads — Border accents: Multicolor glass beads — yellow, blue, orange, green, white — Terminals: Cast bronze bells at the hem of each bead row — Construction: Traditional Naga stringing technique; leather backing on shell panels — HISTORY & CULTURAL CONTEXT — The Naga peoples of northeastern India produced some of the most visually powerful tribal jewelry in the world. Naga necklaces were not decorative accessories — they were encoded social documents. The materials, construction technique, number of rows and color palette all communicated specific information about the wearer: his tribe, his status, his achievements in warfare or community leadership, his wealth. Red glass beads were among the most valued trade goods in Naga culture, imported from Venetian and Czech manufacturers via the Indian trading networks that reached the northeastern hill tribes from the 19th century onward. A necklace with ten full rows of red glass beads represented significant accumulated wealth. The chank shell (Turbinella pyrum) panels are equally significant: this sacred conch shell, used in Hindu and Buddhist ritual contexts across South Asia, held special status across the Naga hills as a marker of prestige and spiritual power. The bronze bells at the hem served both an aesthetic and ceremonial function — their sound during movement was considered protective and auspicious in many Naga traditions. Complete, intact Naga pectoral necklaces of this type — with original shell plates, shell tube panels, bead rows and bells all present — are increasingly rare outside museum collections. Naga material is frequently stripped for individual components; a piece that has survived complete, with its structure and all its elements intact, is a genuine ethnographic document. — PERFECT FOR — — Serious collectors of Naga tribal material and Southeast Asian ethnographic jewelry — Ethnographic art dealers and museum-level private collections — High-end wearable art collectors — this piece can be worn as a complete ceremonial pectoral — Interior designers seeking exceptional statement objects with genuine cultural provenance Shipped with registered mail with tracking number