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
nice combo!
That enamel, whever it`s from, to me seems to sing its` heart out!
Thanks Frankie and Howah, they are indeed very nice!!
A good group indeed, Marie-Ange, and I think you were very wise to buy them. By now I would, however, go so far as to say that all the work we have done on armbands like these suggests very strongly that they are NOT "Multan", but most likely from Sindh, so a very different cultural area, though also in Pakistan.
A nice photo, too, Marie-Ange: you have arranged the objects very well, so that it is easy, this way, to get a good impression of them. Congratulations on your initiatives!
Hi Joost, thank you for your opinion but I stick to Multan for these pieces.
Well, it is of course entirely up to you, Marie-Ange, how you describe your own pieces, but it is not really so much a matter of my "opinion" but what is likely to be the truth. I don't really have an "opinion" on the issue, but am pointing out that the evidence assembled points us away from Multan. That is, of course, also what Linda found, and what Lynn has found, and it is not as though we are not all doing a lot of homework or as though any of us make an assessment like this lightly. Still, they are YOUR pieces, and if you believe they are from Multan I don't think that to date I can change your mind with any more evidence than already produced. I imagine you have seen all the posts on this very question, so I can only refer you to them, and also the books mentioned in them. To me the assembled facts strongly suggest - though do not conclusively PROVE - that these pieces are Sindhi. But the percentage rating FOR that is not as strong as that which is AGAINST the likelihood of their being Multani, which I would rate at 80-90% now. Possibly even higher. The safe thing, of course, would be to describe them as "Pakistani", without further ado, or to point out that they are definitely Pakistani but that there is as yet no conclusive evidence known to you as to which area they come from. That is something which will not give anyone a misleading impression. To describe them as simply Multan flies in the face of a significant body of evidence to the contrary.
By the way, the V&A lists a pair of blue and green champleve anklets, as made in Multan, India. Sadly it is in storage, and no image is available. However, there is a record of it on their website. I would have loved to be able to see it!
Some description is at http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1139445/anklet/
I must find out about these when next in town. I remember the record of them and that they were bequeathed by Oppi Untracht.
Does anyone know if they will bring stored items out for viewing on request at the V&A?
I remember reading in *The world of ...* that some authorities (or an equivalent word) described these or very similar ones as Indian. Possibly Oppi's were meant, as of course he had enormous standing. The ones that are sculpted at the front, like these, are also those which most often do not get described as Multani but from elsewhere, usually Sindhi, and Pakistani. It is good to see these again, actually! Frankie, you MIGHT be shown the pieces, but the thing to do would be to approach the keepers/curators in writing first and to argue that you need to see them for research purposes. They would probably not be keen to show them to you unannounced, and "research" is usually the best word to use.
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