"River amber" is copal - possibly gum arabic - from Senegal?
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Posted by: beadiste Mail author
12/12/2014, 22:09:10

In a discussion with another member who wonders if these beads might be ambergris, and relates:

The Gambian dealer I bought the strand from said it was from Senegal. He said the material came from the ocean. While he was in my apartment, a Senegalese friend of mine came by and we all ate lunch together. He is not a bead dealer. He knows nothing about beads. He said he was familiar with this material from his childhood. He said that once a year, it came in from the ocean. It was picked up on the beach by people who lived in a village on an island off Senegal. ONLY THE PEOPLE FROM THAT VILLAGE WERE ALLOWED TO PICK IT UP FROM THE BEACH. It was sold in the market. It was used as incense. It was used by teething babies to suck and chew on. It was believed to have medicinal properties.

The story I was told - that it drips from trees and gets rolled around in the surf - seems to match that account.

So I poked around Google and discovered that Senegal is a source of gum arabic - copal - by the container load. $750-$2500 will get you a metric ton of it, and this link shows what it looks like straight from the tree:

http://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/GUM-ARABIC_169960608/showimage.html

And Google books has an interesting cite about the historic gum trade in east and west Africa:

https://books.google.com/books?id=EIlCAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA257&lpg=PA257&dq=copal+senegal&source=bl&ots=xHSQ6HPJlg&sig=TFc-Wa1IkGifmIewNlLjbCY4oeU&hl=en&sa=X&ei=QNCLVNfvI4LwoATanID4Dg&ved=0CDsQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=copal%20senegal&f=false

It melts - like pitch and unlike amber - and acetone makes it sticky.

Ambergris? Doubtful, but here's a link if you want to decide for yourself:

http://www.ambergris.co.nz/identification.htm

The beads I have give off a mild resiny smell, like pitch. I've never smelled ambergris, but it is an animal product (whale mucous), not a plant resin, and is described as "musky" - a euphemism similar to describing truffles as "earthy" instead of "reeking of moldy humus"?
;^)

Copal.jpg (114.5 KB)  


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