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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Dear Jean-Marie, this is a very beautiful buckle, thank you for posting it. I suspect that it is Syrian or Anatolian based on the flower shaped dangles which are characteristic for Syrian ornaments in particular. (my apologies in an earlier version of this comment I called you Jean-Pierre!!)
Dear Lynn, thanks for the information concerning the dangles. Regarding the place of the purchase mentioned by the museum (Egypt), and the Caucasian looks of the buckle, I suspect that the object travelled a long way, and that the dangles were added 'on the road', in replacement of lost (or absent) original ones. Furthermore, the buckle and the dangles don't give me a feeling of unity, as if they don't belong together. I wonder if you can agree...?
PS: about Jean-Pierre vs Jean-Marie - no big deal. As a famous Englishman once said: "What's in a name...?").
Dear Jean-Marie, I agree the elements look disparate but this piece kept nagging at me and I looked in Kalter's "The Arts and Crafts of Syria" and found this buckle whose left and right elements resemble the V&A's. The caption is, "This type was originally worn by Chaldaen Christian immigrants from Iraq. Around the turn of the century it was produced in Deir ez-Zor for the Bedouins of eastern Syria."
There is a subset of Syrian and Iraqi jewelry which has this effect on me -- they look like a glorious mishmash but were made that way. Peter Hoesli has several examples that show this effect.
Great detective work! And an interesting buckle....