A digital archive showcasing the extensive collection of jewellery and adornment images shared on the former Ethnic Jewels Ning site over the years. These images have significantly enriched discussions on cultural adornment and its global dispersion.
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Comments
is this ever beautiful!!!! Love it, especially the dangles.
I agree with Eva, Jose. This is very special.
Wonderful. What a find............Have you seen Jorge Dezcallar's collection's cover page? Almost the same............Only difference is the enamel colouring of the central star and yours has only one bottom line of granulation.............must come from the same workshop/artist? A true museum piece. Congratulations. I wonder who would have worn it!
interesting piece jose, can you post a photo of the back side.
maybe also more infos about this piece ??
i can not situat it.for a ben yenni samples, it is unusual.
it is a splendid work. adwir means round in kabyl
You know, if one looks closely, this also seems to have the crescent and sixpointed star of Turkey. Maybe the customer was Turkish. The coral is also cut in the almond shape so characteristic of that region.
Sorry, the Turkish star has 5 points not 6. The star of David has six.
Thank you very much for your comments. I will try to make a picture of the back of the fibula tomorrow with a better light. I have only seen similar examples of this fibula in Mr. Dezcallar's impressive collection (http://www.berberjewels.com/galeriaen/#/content/GALLERY/FIBULAS/157...) and in the book of Il corallo series dedicated to Moroccan and Algerian coral jewellery. The one shown in this book at page 103 is a sample described as Algerian from the Benni Yenni and is at Belghazi Museum in Morocco. That is the only information I have gathered so far so any further inpur will be most welcome.
Yes, Mr. Dezcallar's adwir also shows very clear Ottoman influences ... the crescent and the five-pointed star. I believe the Maghreb was part of the Ottoman empire from 1525 to 1830. But Ait will be able to tell us more.
Yes, Mr. Dezcallar actually explains that the central motif is the cosmic one of a star embraced by the moon. He further explains that it is worn over the chest except if the lady is mother to a boy when she is then granted the right to wear it attached to the headdress and over the forehead.
i am afraid this had been made as a late copy of the the one in the alcazar's collection!
a couple of details should be raised to your attention:
-Coral is vivid red and mechanically polished and worked
-the lower links between the fibula and dangles are circles opposite the S-shaped links which are common on old tabzimt and adwirs
-theres is virtually a total absence of six pointed stars on old kabyle jewelry
-the pin is too flat to have been used as a fastening device, it rather reminds me of a contemporary work
this is a marvelous piece of art and technically highlly executed but obviously lacking patina and age and should be "to my sense" considered at least a contemporary kabyle piece or even a tiznit copy, obviously based and copied from a catalog
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