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Bosnian Tepelik

Posted by Lynn Ardent on January 21, 2015 at 5:30am
This is a gilt silver Bosnian tepelik or head ornament from Sarajevo. High grade (.900) silver with cut glass stones, filigree, and appliques. This is a large piece, a bit smaller than the palm of my hand.I don't know how to clean this piece because of the gilt and glass stones. Any ideas?
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Tags: Bosnia, bosnian, hair, head, ornament, ottoman, sarajevo, tepelek, tepeliki
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Comments

  • Betty January 21, 2015 at 10:07am

    This is stunning, Lynn! You keep finding the most beautiful pieces. Congratulations!

    It doesn't look like it needs too much cleaning. You might try to brush it gently with a mild detergent (or maybe some lemon juice) on a toothbrush (electrical toothbrushes are ideal in my experiences) trying to avoid the stones. Rinse and allow to dry throughly.

  • Peter Hoesli January 21, 2015 at 6:55pm

    Dear Lynn: A truly great piece - congratulations! I agree with Betty and would not clean it much either. The way Betty described, is exactly how I am cleaning my silver jewelry. This will ensure that the patina is being retained, which gives the piece a nice character. This is really lovely Lynn! With kind regards. Peter

  • Charlotte Dakin-Norris January 21, 2015 at 8:04pm
    A lovely ornament! Excellent advice regarding cleaning too from Betty and Peter. It looks like the glass stones have a metal foil behind them which would be damaged if they were to be immersed in water. I wonder if adding extra protection to these stones by cutting a small piece of masking tape to cover each one completely (just in case of splashes) would help?
  • howah January 21, 2015 at 9:54pm

    lovely! I am looking for historic photos of women wearing tepeliks, but these are hard to find. any suggestion Lynn?

  • Lynn Ardent January 21, 2015 at 10:33pm

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    Thank you Betty, Peter, Charlotte, and Howah for your comments and advice.  Howah, I have not searched too much for historical photos but I believe that these were worn on top of small hats similar to fez.  So the photos are probably labelled as Ottoman woman with hat, or possibly there are photos of the preserved antique hats.  The other issue is that there are a lot of different spellings for the ornament name, the seller of this piece who is Croatian called it a "tepeliki" and I have seen at least 4 different variations.  Here are photos that came up on searches for tepeliki where I think the ornaments were worn on top of hats like these:

  • Thelma January 25, 2015 at 2:16pm

    I like this one, Lynn. How would it be connected to a hat? I see there are some triangular holes around the margins. Perhaps these were used to sew it on?

  • Lynn Ardent January 26, 2015 at 3:47am

    Thank you Thelma.   I think you are right and it was sewn on.  

    Howah, I stumbled across this photo of a Bulgarian woman wearing a tepelik-type ornament: 

    5940194323c54595b534f95f4d60ed56.jpg

  • Joost Daalder February 18, 2015 at 11:22am

    A truly delightful piece.

  • Lynn Ardent April 6, 2015 at 3:10am

    A better photo after cleaning, and one of the back. 

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  • Joost Daalder April 6, 2015 at 3:33am

    A  truly lovely piece, Lynn, which has some up very well. I was intrigued by the b/w photo worn at the back of her hairdo by the woman in the b/w hairdo: that looks remarkably like and item from the minorities in SW China! This puzzles me rather ... Best wishes! - Joost

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