Gallery

Comments

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  Toya June 5, 2011 at 11:39pm

  What a remarkable piece of workmanship.
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  Isabel Iglesias June 6, 2011 at 5:15pm

  ayis...it is a beauty...fabulous piece!
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  Becky Rogers June 7, 2011 at 2:45am

  This is wonderful. Where did you find it? I have a book by the author you mention. I am going to find it and have another look.
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  SARAH CORBETT June 7, 2011 at 8:40am

  such a beauty...thank you for posting this piece
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  Alaa eddine SAGID June 7, 2011 at 12:32pm

  the book of "saad al jadir" is "arab and islamic silver", you will find a picture of a similar belt inside in page 68-69.

   

  I found this belt here in France where it was being sold as ottoman (wich is partly true).
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  Joost Daalder June 8, 2011 at 3:06pm

  Hi ayis, - Congratulations on having this piece, which is indeed very rare and important. You are also - as Truus and I are - very lucky to have the useful book *Arab and Islamic Silver* by Saad Al-Jadir, which I imagine is by now probably quite hard to buy. We find the book at times in error, but nevertheless very useful and comprehensive, and usually correct. The longer I live the more pleased I am with our extensive library on ethnic jewellery, for it is indeed true that your find in a case like this might easily have remained obscure to someone not owning such books as Al-Jadir's. In a case like Morocco, for example, we find it very useful to have a significant number of books - mos of them of course in French - as they often supplement each other. And even then there are pieces which are undoubtedly Moroccan and genuine and which these authors do not include ...
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  Joost Daalder June 8, 2011 at 3:32pm

  Later addition to earlier comment: I posted this photo, and the one of the detail, on our "Ethnic Jewellery and Adornment" Facebook page, as I think these images, along with your comments, are highly important and want my viewers to be acquainted both with the piece and your comments. Thanks for your valuable posting.
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  Toya June 8, 2011 at 5:22pm

  Ayis (and Joost) Yesterday, after reading your comments about the book  Arab and Islamic Silver by Saad Al Jadir

  I found it at Amazon.com. There were several used copies available so I ordered one.
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  Alaa eddine SAGID June 8, 2011 at 11:19pm

  the saad al jadir's collection is fabulous and on the book i cited, the owner only browsed it on a catalog way.

   

  Saad al jadir have a much more valuable book (very big and heavy) called "KUNUZ, Islamic silver treasures" wich i found once in Morocco where it was first published. It is way more academic and tells tons of historical information about silver use in the islamic world; jewellery got the lion's share in it!

  Highly recommended to have in any serious library on ethnic jewellery
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  Joost Daalder June 9, 2011 at 1:21am

  Hi ayis, - That is very good information, and explains why, for such a great collection, *Arab and Islamic Silver* is at times a bit disappointing as a book! I shall see whether *Kunuz, Islamic Silver Treasures* is still in any way obtainable. How interesting that TWO books got done. As it is, people already envy us owning the more superficial book, but the one you mention is the one we would of course dearly like. We collect the best books on such ethnic jewellery which we ourselves collect, as otherwise you really disadvantage yourself. Thanks so much for drawing attention to *Kunuz, Islamic Silver Treasures*. It will be VERY interesting to see whether it can still be bought anywhere ... but I am not hopeful. Most of these books - and especially the better ones, alas - have been done in small print runs only. Anyway, I should not prejudice my chances! I am glad that toya did get *Arab and Islamic Silver* without much difficulty, but that is the only one I knew of, so I suspect that indeed more copies of that were done. Toya, it is very much worth having, even if not as good as the one ayis mentions here!