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.

Mauritanian Anklet

Please tell me more about this piece! An absolutely massive anklet, cast in dark aluminum and with copper/brass alloy plates. Hinge and pin are industrial. In the Splendor of Ethnic Jewelry, this anklet is cited as Tuareg. In Africa Adorned, Angela Fisher has it outside of the Tuareg section in the "Savannah" section. Any more information on who made and wore this, at what time?Dimensions:850 grams!
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Comments

  • Well, Lynn, all I can say is that it looks GORGEOUS! With kind regards. Peter

  • Thank you Peter!  I was very lucky on this one, and grateful to Alaa for giving me so much more background information.

  • What a beauty! Aluminum with thin plates gold (?) An old design of anklets (they come in pairs). First recorded in Timbuktu. Similar ones in Mauretania  now a days. See Africa adorned.

  • Thank you Harald!  I am really pleased with it. 

  • Dear Lynn, that is wonderful!  Given the industrial pins and the aluminum, do you think it might have started life as a piece of pipe?  No offense meant at all.  Just curious.

  • Dear Anjali, your question is great.  The aluminum metal of this piece started out life as an industrial part or cookpot, and then was melted down in Africa and cast into this shape.  Thanks, --Lynn

  • Thank you  for letting me know.  Such a fabulous work of art!

  • Lynn whenever I read statements like this, I always wonder why it has to come from old pots and pans, or old mechanical parts.  Aluminium is mined in Africa, with the west African country of the Republic of Guinea being a world leader in aluminium production.  Other primary aluminium producers in Africa include Ghana and Mozambique.   I am not saying that some of the jewellery that one sees is not recycled aluminium, as the African continent is well known for its ability to recycle but I have problems in believing that none of the aluminium used is 'direct' from the mines.

  • Absolutely wonderful. the design, creativity and to me the use of aluminium. Unusual as well. A great find.

  • The other side of this for me is the issue of slave anklets.  Is this what so many of these heavy anklets were originally designed for?  This particular piece, as beautifully done as it is, still makes me think of that.  Sort of modern, industrialized version.

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