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Comments

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  Joost Daalder January 4, 2012 at 4:12am

  I am greatly impressed by these!
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  Alaa eddine SAGID January 4, 2012 at 11:34am

  Gold jewelry is indeed very attractive and seldom seen in collection, these are not very early, especially the bracelets and the little coran holders pendants. the little brooches (?) on the right are a mystery to me!!

  The crown is used for brides and the central brooch is very well crafted. The necklace is actually a headband
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  Joost Daalder January 4, 2012 at 11:45am

  The quality of the work here seemed in general good to me, particularly the crown and the armbands. I don't KNOW these articles at all. I looked at them as though they were all part of an important and well-documented collection with which I am not familiar. The wrong assumption, it seems - or at least we are looking at a motley bunch, according to what you tell us, ayis ...
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  Joost Daalder January 4, 2012 at 11:51am

  Although I was (and am) impressed by much here, I never felt an inclination to re-post the image, as I am simply not familiar with the material and it looked like too much of a mixture. I WOULD, if I could, re-post the crown, especially, as I really do like that, but not without finding out more about it. The brooch in the centre, on the other hand, I find far too stiff, and it does not look compatible, aesthetically, with the crown (I say that as a matter of style only - the material is largely unknown to me).
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  Joost Daalder January 4, 2012 at 12:05pm

  Am I right in assuming that this is urban jewellery from Fez? For that is what "fassis" seems to lead one towards. It is, in any case, mostly VERY urban - that much is clear. Even so I have some difficulty understanding the variation in styles. Are these meant to be a coherent group, or just a mixture of pieces all made in Fez? That is to say, ayis, that I share your sense of puzzlement, though coming at the matter with far less knowledge.
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  SARAH CORBETT January 4, 2012 at 12:17pm

  Hi Joost,

  Yes these are mostly pieces of urban wedding jewellery from Fes, although often also of Meknes or other places in the North such as Tetouen.

  I am not an expert in the gold pieces, however i believe that the central piece (515) may be of Tetouen style.

  I have other pictures of such pieces and shall post some

  Sx

   
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  SARAH CORBETT January 4, 2012 at 12:19pm

  https://ethnicjewels.ning.com/main/search/search?q=fes&page=1

  a few from our search facility!

   
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  Joost Daalder January 4, 2012 at 12:35pm

  Thanks, Sarah. In the event I think that the ones from the collection - I mean the pieces from Fez shown in this image - are in general of a high standard. I am glad to have seen them, although one wishes that the collector had provided captions. If you are not familiar with a type of jewellery - and that is true of me in a case like this - you really find yourself rather at sea (or should I say  "a fog of ignorance'') without information ... Thanks for posting them, all the same, and not least for telling me a bit more about them. I am sure others will also feel a bit better informed as I believe this type of jewellery is not terribly well known, right?
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  Alaa eddine SAGID January 4, 2012 at 12:35pm

  Indeed urban jewelry but i would rather be inclined to think that it comes from north morocco. the fact that the owner is spanish it is very obvious that he did his main purchases in tangiers or tetuan both north moroccan cities, at a stone throw from spain, obvious.

  This set IMO could have been owned by a bride's embellisher "neggafa" wich duty is to lend jewelry, dress and provide traditionnal make up for brides, for it is very impossible that each bride to afford such wealth of adornment.

  The little coran holders at the left were very common across morocco (my mother and all women her age used to have them as part of their jewelry) and are still used today among rural hype-wannabees women.

  The little brooches on the right are exclusively used by bride's embellishers to pin a lace work fabric thrown over the bride's soulders and are a recent devolution (deterioration) of the much more classical fibulas.

  The headband is exclusively used on bride's attire after having been popular earlier in north morocco (still used by some berber folkloric dance bands around ouarzazate)

  The central brooch is completely north morocco but belongs to a wider type of urban middle chest brooches, also were popular among moroccan ladies in the 70's/ 80's but now only used in bride's attire.

  The crown have always been used in bride's attire and the earrings's shape is also tipycal of the bride's.

  From the coulour of the gold, IMO these are all post 1950, i own a gold headband wich is much more older and it obviously shows an elaborate mix of gold and copper with all the back solder made with silver.

  The stones used seem to be plastic or at best jade (?) a stones hyped for its ressemblence with emerald wich would have been used if the jewelry was old, also we can notice that the white stones are probably zirconium while if really old, rose cut diamonds would have been used ( i should post a couple of 1930/1940 pieces that my mother owns with these features)
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  Joost Daalder January 4, 2012 at 12:50pm

  Many thanks for your comments, ayis - I am getting a much better idea. It is still entirely puzzling to me why the collector did not do anything like what you  have been doing here, by way of providing comment. All we were given was the word "fassis".