Photos

Comments

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  Toya May 14, 2011 at 9:26pm

  This set of Kabylie jewelry from Algeria is one of my favorites.
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  Patricia Deany May 14, 2011 at 10:07pm

  I love Kabyle stuff and know that it is really difficult to find now. Took me a very long time to locate a diadem like yours. For a really spectacular diadem, take a look at Linda Pastorino's diadem, it is uniquely fantastic.
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  Ethnic Embellishments May 15, 2011 at 3:18am

  Oh how stunning!  I have a strand of thick ox blood red Algerian coral beads that I adore.  The Kabyle work is one of my favorites.
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  Joost Daalder December 14, 2011 at 3:14pm

  That is a very pleasing and good set of pieces, Toya! Well done and congrats!
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  ait ouakli March 1, 2012 at 12:55am

  verry verry nice.fine and perfect
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  Toya March 1, 2012 at 5:57am

  Thank you for your kind comments, Ait Ouakli. I'm happy to own these.
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  Joost Daalder March 1, 2012 at 6:28am

  We have good examples of three of these pieces, but even though they were bought several years ago we bought them all at different times, and it was not at all easy to locate quality items even then, while we were willing to explore several markets for them. We don't have an example of the (very nice) smallest piece. In our case, the necklace has for whatever reason been the item we have seen least often, and I am not sure that if we had not bought the one we obtained, we would have found another one as good.
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  Toya March 1, 2012 at 7:22am

  Joost-I bought these all together as a set, but the large round pendant appears older in its enameling. It has been altered or repaired in some way to accomodate the loops that hold the dangles, but the dangles on it match the rest of the set. I wonder if it was an older piece that was incorporated into the set by the owner.
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  Joost Daalder March 1, 2012 at 11:15am

  That's interesting further information, Toya. Even on the photo one can see, once alerted to it, that the pendant (the "tabzimt") is a bit different. The loops would always be in principle somewhat vulnerable, as quite a bit of stress gets put on them, particularly if the article is not worn, but packed etc. So it is not infrequent for some of the tassels to be missing. (The one is Truus's book misses one at each end, but we have another tambzimt which is complete; however, a complete example is in our experience less common, if the piece is old.) If the dangles are a perfect match with the disc, in your case, they may well be original, with work done at the bottom of the piece and the tassels then re-attached. Would that be possible? On the photo it does not look a major deal, and if the tabzimt is otherwise a bit older than the other pieces I don't think, myself, that that is to be lamented. It is always nice if you do get a complete set, but as so many of these pieces were rotated, or worn separately from the others, etc, you can hardly count on all of them to be a perfect match. It is a very nice group of items, which is great!