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.

Fibula

I bought these recently.The one on the left is Tunisian but the one on the right I am not certain about. Algerian perhaps? The cabachons are not coral but a kind of bakelite.Does any one have any knowledge about this?
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  • The one to the right is a lovely kabyle fibula from the "petite kabylie", this region of kabylia was not influenced by the enameling techniques present in the "grande kabylie" jewellery and maintained a non enameling jewellery for a long time

     

    you are right, the red stone is a bakelite imported from france when coral begun to rairify at the turn of the XXth century

     

    i would love to have a pair of these

     

    I have posted a photo of larger fibulas from the same region using the same technique of bakelite cabochons and dating from the same period

    https://ethnicjewels.ning.com/photo/kabyle-fibulas?context=user

  • Ayis, Thank you for identifying this one for me. It is very large with beautiful workmanship.  It seems like the kabyle jewelry made after this period once again used coral. Do you know-Did the source for bakelite dry up, or did the tastes change?
  • imay add that bakelite itself was invented around 1910 and was later replaced by celluloid

     

    as a general rule coral jewellery is older than the bakelite one wich is older that the celluloid one, the same worls for the price as coral is dearer that bakelite woch is pricier that celluloid

     

    After WWI and WWII a huge shift occured in tastes and the jewosh silversmiths migrated to france and of course the local buyers had by that time been largely impoverished so they could not stand anymore the hefty prices of heavy silver jewellery and genuine coral

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