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Comments

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  Alaa eddine SAGID June 10, 2013 at 9:36pm

  
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  Marie-Ange June 10, 2013 at 9:46pm

  Great find Ayis!!
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  Eva Baby June 10, 2013 at 10:17pm

  Beauty! Very nice Piece! And thanks for the extra pictures, they are fabulous.
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  Alaa eddine SAGID June 10, 2013 at 10:33pm

  this was bought in jerusalem, so obviously brought by a migrating jew from morocco!

  It bears heart patterns which is allien to the berber iconography in south morocco and the suspension side hooks are similar to boxes found in south western algeria ( saoura valley) but the chain is purely moroccan

  My reference book which said ait ouaouzguit is wrong, and the a big moroccan antique dealer confirmed figuig as the origin.

  The closest area to figuig where enamel was thouroughly documented is in the DADDES valley, where it was applied only in some very small elements sewn, on ......jewish headresses!!!

  The connection with jews or at least with jewish smiths is more and more obvious still our examples bear a cruder, bolder and thicker enamel...somehow very archaic

  As stated and admitted, the age of such pieces is no more than 2OO years and they are heavily connected to Saoura valley grannulation and filgree work which was not enameled!

  So the enamel is a figuig stuff brought later

  We can pretend that enamel came from the north, for figuig was also connected to (fes/meknes) and tlemecen through trade, and these cities used to have enameled jewelry, but the most striking feature here are the colors which are not common in these cities (rather blue, green, red!!); orange and green is to be found in western anti atlas among the berber where some brilliant smiting was done by jewish artisans

  Jews were often migrating and working in jobs requiring movement, for they were often denied land full ownership! Thus inter regions marriages were very common, a single artisans may well travel from village to village, executing commissioned work until settling down in a far flung village with a jewish community where he marries a local girl

  I strongly believe that invention and new designs in ethnic jewelry are driven by men and smiths, women would stick to their local traditions and rarely move away from it.......their husbands especially when wealthy, or travelled extensively would bring in novelties and smiths when settling in a new area would bring with them other designs and techniques. Women would stick to what they have inherited from their mothers and rarely try some inventiveness only in stringing loose elements into necklaces or headresses.

  So one can surmise about a young smith or family settling in Figuig and bringing with him an archaic form of enamel which became extinct by their migration to the city or the middle east

  From the important number of these bracelets i don't think they were enameled later, or that the enamel was added later after they were made, for that nobody can find a non enameled bracelet but we all find references of enameled ones!

  The cabs of the box are red beads and chunks of chat could be some sort of processed coral!!  so the use of both was common and maybe depending on the availability of the material
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  Alaa eddine SAGID June 10, 2013 at 10:34pm

  Unfortunately i had to part with this beauty, i miss it already! :-)
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  Joost Daalder June 10, 2013 at 10:59pm

  Very convincing comments, Ayis, and I do like the piece. I agree that it must come from the same area as Hillary's armbands, but I wonder whether in this case the enamel was produced by the smith who made the piece,while possibly inHillary's case the enamels were "slapped on" by someone less skilled than the person who made the armbands themselves? For in Hillary's case the two processes differ greatly in skill, whereas here that is not so at all. This actually looks a relatively sophisticated piece all over. I have do difficulty understanding that it would come from the Figuig area, with both Algerian and Moroccan traits. And I greatly like the colours. A pity you had to sell, for it must be rare.
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  Joost Daalder June 10, 2013 at 11:02pm

  I meant "no difficulty" understanding it comes from the Figuig area, sorry. Thanks for posting the piece, Ayis - it clarifies a lot.
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  Joost Daalder June 10, 2013 at 11:11pm

  Of course the enamel on Hilary's piece MAY have been put on at the time of manufacture, by a smith who knew much better how to handle silver than enamels. In both this case and Hillary's the enamels are thick, a bit crude, and identical in colour. Still, here they look "professional". The very earliest date would apparently be about 1810, though to my mind that would be early. I can't prove it would be later, though.
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  Alaa eddine SAGID June 10, 2013 at 11:14pm

  i garee on the age, not older than this.

  II have to add that the feel of this box was tremendously awesome, for it was similar to bear a middle ages artefacts....the touch was so smooth and patinated. unreal
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  SARAH CORBETT June 11, 2013 at 1:09am

  The concept of the Travelling jewish silversmiths makes great sense, particularly in the context of the pieces which Besancenot attributes to Ait Ouarzguit . I have seen and heard report that the ladies of the rich saffron growing regions would hire silversmiths to live in their villages or indeed their homes to create jewels for them, in this scenario it would be likely that silversmiths would pass through the area looking for such employment. So there is the chance that the silversmith responsible for creating the bracelets and also possibly this box may have left figuig , to pursue employment thus ending the production of these items In the figuig region, and leading to a piece of his work being observed and recorded in the Sirouan mountains.