When I arrived in Arabia in 1965, Riyadh was a small city centered around the souk, or market, where all the necessities of daily life were crowded into an area of a few blocks. In the heart of this market was the harim souk, the women's personal shopping enclave and here I acquired my first example of Bedouin jewelry, a pair of long chains with tiny turquoise stones at the top and dangling bells of silver filigree. I bought them to use as decorations and later learned their correct name, ilaqaat, and that they were meant to frame a woman's face in much the same way that I hung them on either side of my bedroom mirror. This was the beginning of an appreciation of these beautiful symbols of a woman's personal wealth that resulted in thirty-three years of collecting until my return to the United States in 1998. It was my good fortune that the engineering company my husband headed owned a twin engine airplane that supplied the many camps scattered throughout the desert where construction was to start on the country's first highway network. I often traveled with him to outlying areas and visited the women's souks in rural villages to acquire not only other pieces of jewelry, but pieces of their story as well. My interest served as an easy introduction to the women who sold it as well as those who were their customers and all of them were happy to serve as models when I didn't quite know how an item was to be worn. The interaction with these ladies was as much a part of the pleasure of collecting as the pieces themselves.
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