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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Great find Ayis!!
Beauty! Very nice Piece! And thanks for the extra pictures, they are fabulous.
this was bought in jerusalem, so obviously brought by a migrating jew from morocco!
It bears heart patterns which is allien to the berber iconography in south morocco and the suspension side hooks are similar to boxes found in south western algeria ( saoura valley) but the chain is purely moroccan
My reference book which said ait ouaouzguit is wrong, and the a big moroccan antique dealer confirmed figuig as the origin.
The closest area to figuig where enamel was thouroughly documented is in the DADDES valley, where it was applied only in some very small elements sewn, on ......jewish headresses!!!
The connection with jews or at least with jewish smiths is more and more obvious still our examples bear a cruder, bolder and thicker enamel...somehow very archaic
As stated and admitted, the age of such pieces is no more than 2OO years and they are heavily connected to Saoura valley grannulation and filgree work which was not enameled!
So the enamel is a figuig stuff brought later
We can pretend that enamel came from the north, for figuig was also connected to (fes/meknes) and tlemecen through trade, and these cities used to have enameled jewelry, but the most striking feature here are the colors which are not common in these cities (rather blue, green, red!!); orange and green is to be found in western anti atlas among the berber where some brilliant smiting was done by jewish artisans
Jews were often migrating and working in jobs requiring movement, for they were often denied land full ownership! Thus inter regions marriages were very common, a single artisans may well travel from village to village, executing commissioned work until settling down in a far flung village with a jewish community where he marries a local girl
I strongly believe that invention and new designs in ethnic jewelry are driven by men and smiths, women would stick to their local traditions and rarely move away from it.......their husbands especially when wealthy, or travelled extensively would bring in novelties and smiths when settling in a new area would bring with them other designs and techniques. Women would stick to what they have inherited from their mothers and rarely try some inventiveness only in stringing loose elements into necklaces or headresses.
So one can surmise about a young smith or family settling in Figuig and bringing with him an archaic form of enamel which became extinct by their migration to the city or the middle east
From the important number of these bracelets i don't think they were enameled later, or that the enamel was added later after they were made, for that nobody can find a non enameled bracelet but we all find references of enameled ones!
The cabs of the box are red beads and chunks of chat could be some sort of processed coral!! so the use of both was common and maybe depending on the availability of the material
Unfortunately i had to part with this beauty, i miss it already! :-)
i garee on the age, not older than this.
II have to add that the feel of this box was tremendously awesome, for it was similar to bear a middle ages artefacts....the touch was so smooth and patinated. unreal