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Comments

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  Mustafa J. Salem April 23, 2015 at 12:22pm

  This headdress used to be worn by ladies in Jabal Nafusah. It is worn on the right side of the head. Made of solid silver . This piece is quite heavy '288 grams'. 900 silver
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  Mustafa J. Salem April 23, 2015 at 12:43pm

  The lady in the picture below is mixing between the old silver and the new traditional 'recent traditional'. The white silver is what was used through history. But the yellow 'gilt' is actually worn today on occasions and weddings but it is modern.
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  Betty April 23, 2015 at 1:28pm

  Very impressive piece, Mustafa, and it is great to see how it is worn nowadays in combination with modern jewellery.Thanks for posting these pics.

  A note on the weight of this headpiece: I quite like heavy jewellery am always surprised when it comes to such heavy pieces. Di you know if head ornaments like this always used to be reserved for wear on special occasions or whether they were "every day adornment"

  BTW: the Libyan bangles I recently bough are becoming favourite pieces of mine...
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  Mustafa J. Salem April 23, 2015 at 2:56pm

   These ornaments were only used by 'Berber' ladies in Jabal Nafusah. This specific type of ornaments' Tauaenza' are worn on the right side of the head. They are worn only by elder ladies, widows or ladies with no husbands. So they are special type of ornament . There is also another type of these ornaments called ' Manfukh and Arbib'. They have the same function but they are lighter as they are not solid silver but rather empty inside  See pic. below.
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  Peter Hoesli April 23, 2015 at 6:19pm

  Dear Mustafa, This is a very special piece. I was not aware that they existed. Congratulations! Peter
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  Mustafa J. Salem April 23, 2015 at 6:39pm

  Dear Peter; Thanks for the comment. Yes these headdress ornaments did exist. I had to look for sometime to find the two types which are rare to find. But as they are special ornaments and only used at certain times they were both in perfect condition though they were quite old. These pieces are only worn by certain ladies in the 'Berber' areas. I had to tell the seller what it is as most sellers think that they big earrings.
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  Joost Daalder April 23, 2015 at 10:02pm

  Very interesting pieces, Mustafa. I too had not seen these before, and I would have had difficulty guessing how they were used. The variety and the inventiveness of ethnic jewellery continue to astound me, and that has now been the case for many years.
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  Mustafa J. Salem April 23, 2015 at 10:41pm

  Thank you Joost, for your comment. You are right we find out new things  everyday. We learn from that  on the way. It is nice that we have interest in ethnic jewellery and we can enjoy learning about them.
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  ingrid Langerak April 24, 2015 at 8:01am

  Very nice Mustafa, an attractive piece and also way it is worn, very charming.  I love the shape of the band itself, so well executed and refined decoration. Not half work. Gr.Ingrid.
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  Mustafa J. Salem April 24, 2015 at 11:35am

  Thank you Ingrid: These pieces were crafted long time ago when labor was cheap and when Master smiths love their work and they consider a type of art besides being something to trade. Nowadays  craftsmen who are in the business today they say they rely on mechanized items as it is too expensive to spend time on hand crafting which is true.  Sadly we loose so many of these heritage items to a melting process.