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Comments
Gorgeous Peter! Is this the pink foil backing again? Congratulations!
I have recently acquired two old cuffs from North India which have traces of pink foil on them. I am intrigued at the idea of a possible common origin. I will post them once I get them clean.
Very impressive indeed - they make a terrific visual impact. I always very much like the basic shape - but the spectacular colouring is a great delight as well!
Dear Lynn and Joost; Many thanks for your comments. The underlay is not a foil but red leather. It does look gorgeous but is a bit difficult to clean. With kind regards from springtime Dead Sea-Jordan. Peter
Ah, that is interesting, Peter: not foil, but leather. I compared it just now with your large Bukharan belt, and there it IS foil which creates the pink, right? This has a similar colour, but I did think it was thicker - still, I had not thought of leather. Great to know, and a truly sensational piece!
Dear Joost; Many thanks for your mail. Please note that there is no foil on the Bukharan belt. The silver of the belt has something like a pinkish mirror but there is definitely no foil there. Also, you can see a pretty identical belt of the Bukharan unit in the book "A World of Belts" but this time with a black background. I was brought up in Switzerland but personally love the pinkish color with the gold - it is really sumptuous. Well, I guess everybody has his/her taste, which is good. With kind regards. Peter
That is doubly interesting, Peter - that the background should not be foil (on silver). I am quite surprised by that, but of course accept what you say. How, in that case, did the smith manage to create the colour? Foil certainly has been used in other instances, but one does keep learning new things. Do you know how it was done? I know the one in A World of Belts - but black is easier to apply to silver (for example by using niello, though that is not the only way). Leather is of course handy!! But to create a pinkish tinge on the actual silver is very artful, and I am much intrigued ...
Thank you for posting so many great pieces, Peter. Today is the first day when I have looked at ALL of your photos, and I am quite overwhelmed! And learning, as well ...
Dear Peter, again a eye catching piece. I love the clean line on it. What impresses me is that the large granulates are still in tact. must be very well soldered to have them all in place. I think to use leather is not such a difficult task, In Ethiopia they use red tanned leather a lot like and I have some beautiful leather pulled over wood boxes from Burkina Fasso (new) . In Ethiopia shields were made if not of the Rhino skin (more costly ones) and the more common ones were made of many layers of leather on each other, they would be applied layer on layer but wet, sothat when it dried it will be very compact.
So with this belt, could it have been shaped wet over the base to get it firmly in place and than captured with the beautiful fillegree work? Gr. Ingrid.
Dear Ingrid; Many thanks for your message. I do not think that the leather was very difficult to arrange as the filigree is attached to the actual belt buckle, with fixations through the leather. I have just purchased an antique scroll holder from Turkey, which has gorgeous silver fittings but the center part is in leather. This is only the second time that I have seen such tubular scroll holder, covered in leather. The first time, it was in Aqaba - an absolutely fantastic piece with the leather in red and light beige. However, the dealer wanted a little fortune for it. This is typical in Aqaba - they have a tendency to rib-off the tourists and when he realized that I am the General Manager of a fancy 5-star resort, the price went up on top of everything else. Even local negotiations did not yield anything. Hence, I left it...
By the way, when I traveled to Ethiopia back in 1982, I have purchased a gorgeous and very large antique shield, which was covered with Rhino skin. Well, it was confiscated at the airport (at least they did not find all my other treasures)! Friends of us were able to have it released but not exported later on. With kind regards. Peter
Dear Peter, What a reply, loved it. What surprises me is that they actually went through the leather, but that adds to the security of keeping the leather in place. Thank you.
At least the custome security released the shield(imagine real Rhino skin not many around) a pity. I lost two very old claws (large and black) somebody brought them along for me, confiscated at Schiphol airport no paper of receipt in order to trace it. No pleasant feeling. During that period of your visit, I was there. Rough period though could you travel through the country? Gr. Ingrid.
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