المؤلف
Unknown
تاريخ النشر
1850
مكان النشر
Somalia (made) -
الموضوع
Jewellery Africa Metalwork
النوع
أخرى
اللغة
غير محدد
رقمي
نعم
مخطوط
لا
الأبعاد الفيزيائية
Length: 26cm, Width: 16cm
المكتبة
Victoria and Albert Museum
معرف أصل المكتبة
157-1898
رقم السجل
157-1898
موقع المكتبة
Middle East Section
التاريخ
1850
ملاحظات
This necklace probably comes from Somalia. Similar silver crescents were part of the dowry of the Islamic women of the Harer region in the Horn of Africa, but those worn today are single, unlike this unusual double construction. They were traditionally worn with a necklace of valuable amber beads, which were highly prized for their supposed amuletic quality. The traditional Islamic jewellery of the Horn of Africa is quite different from the austere Berber silver designs worn elsewhere in North Africa. It often shows influences from Arabian or even Indian jewellery, reflecting the regionâs close historic trading and cultural links with those countries.
Tarihsel bağlam
'The islands off the East African coast - Lamu, Manda, Pate, Pemba, Kilwa and the Comoros - were all, like Zanzibar, Swahili-speaking, Islamic and with tangible links to peoples deriving from the Arabian Sea and beyond. Much of the material culture reflects over a millennium of a distinctive history. Ornate chip-wood doors, boxes and high-backed chairs, silver-working or weaponry are all distinctive of participation in an Indian Ocean network of trade, influence and settlement.' Africa, Arts and Cultures , John Mack (ed.), London: British Museum Press, 2000
Malzemeler ve teknikler
Amber and glass beads with a silver filigree pendant Silver Amber Glass
Fiziksel açıklama
Necklace of glass and amber beads incorporating a large silver pendant. The necklace contains 23 amber beads, each consisting of a roughly shaped disc of opaque brownish amber, and 39 round glass beads. 27 of the glass beads are black with a pattern of white discs with pink and blue centres, 8 are yellow with floral overlay in brown, white, pink and green, and 4 are orange with similar overlay to the yellow beads. The glass beads are mainly arranged in two strands on each side between the sections of amber beads. The pendant consists of two hollow crescents, the larger on top of the smaller, with rounded ends with a small pyramid of granules. The fronts of both crescents are decorated with applied filigree spirals, flat discs, lozenges of twisted wire, and small pyramids of granules. The pendant is attached to the necklace by five loops along the top of the upper crescent, and there are numerous loops along the lower edges of both crescents holding small pendants of bells hanging from S-shaped loops. In the centre of the small pendants there is a large filigree bead, shaped like a cylindrical amulet case, with pendent bells.
Üretim
Possibly Zanzibar
