We have a vast collection of images here which have been shared over the years ...
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Dear Anjali and Eva, I had written you a note but by mistake clicked the photo with its stories away.
I did and now do again thank you for your effort to get an answer on my question. I think it is a kind of closed circle. Eventhough it is connected to EJ and let me place the photo it disappeared. So it was a mistake thinking it was for members of EJ. @Eva I placed the photo again so you can have your better look. I also placed a close up of some of the Gojjam crosses which Charlotte admired and also a photo of details of a couple of my favorites, just look at the wonderful refined work. Warm greetings, Ingrid.
Dear Ingrid, thanks for the Pictures and explanations. I have to say that yesterday my Computer was out of order, I could do nothing. yesterday. Today, to my surprise, it works again. if I can wait a bit with buying a new one, I will be happy to wait, as I spent too much lately on photographic Equipment. thanks for showing your Ethiopian collections, I love to see each of your Pictures.
Dear Ingrid, This is a very impressive display. Thank you for putting it all together. It has enabled me to identify a cross that one of my great, great uncles was wearing on his watch chain in a photo taken towards the end of the nineteenth century :)) The location of the cross in your collection... go along the bottom row to the sixth cross and then there is a gap, and the cross from the line above is the one in my photo. Do you know where it came from and what kind of cross it is?
Dear Eva, I was waiting for your observation. These small crosses are from my treasured collection. They are also a joy to handle, because they are made of good substance, I love the softened feel of antique silver. As I wrote on a different photo they are all originating from the Havaria cross, the Evangelist cross, starting as early as 4th century, they were some made in bronze, soapstone, iron, wood and for some also in gold (this only uptil 7th century). The silver cross did come into fashion as late as 1880. From the Round model imported places of the church started to design their own crosses and the individual model became known, the jewelers added their own fancy ideas. Like mixing two bordering provinces together. So individual pectoral crosses are sometimes hard to figure out where they are from. Complicated? Never mind. They are all coptic crosses from Ethiopia. Gr. Ingrid.
This is an awesome collection, Ingrid! You always manage to surprise us with a wealth of different styles and the high quality of all your pieces. It's hard to find such beauties today.
@ Eva: great to hear from you again! Let's keep in touch...
Dear Thelma, that is very interesting, also a point for me to know that the silver pectoral crosses in all their lovely different shapes were all in existence straight from the 1880 when silver crosses became in fashion. (On the reply to Eva you can read some more history of the coptic cross.)
Now your uncle's cross, how interesting, is a Gondar cross(both parts) . Gondar is also the place where most of the Falasha's lived and live. Gondar is also the province where there are the Castles are a touristic attraction, there is also the church with the Gondar angles frescos(under Unesco's protection) etc. A very cultured province(earlier a Kingdom). And fierce warriors.. I am also quite curious what your uncle did in Ethiopia. Must have been an enormous undertaking such a trip.
It was also fun to follow your direction how to find the selected cross.
Gr. Ingrid.
Eva and Thelma, I still forgot to mention that the golden crosses did come back into fashion especially in towns in the middle of the 20th century.
The story of Thelma's great great uncle possessing a Gondar cross as early as the late 19th Century sound indeed fascinating. I don't think tourism was the order of the day in these days, but of course many foreigners lived as diplomats, traders etc. in Ethiopia. I remember I once bought a piece from an old gentleman whose parents had lived in Ethiopia from the early 1900s until the 1920.
Betty, not to forget the different army representatives. You know in Ethiopia one can see at the diplomatic car no. plates which Embassy was first and the follow up. Like Italy no.1. UK. 2 Fr.3 US4 RUS 5 Germany 6 Belgium 7 India9 Neth. 10 These I remember this just now. Not 100% sure but these were also embassies who did have political, military and economical early connections with Ethiopia.
Absolutely. And Menelik for example employed many Europeans in his services if I remember right. Not to forget his modernising policies which brought foreign companies into the country that built for example the railway to Djibouti or the telegraph system. There must have been a sizeable international community in the early 1900s.
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