Photos

Comments

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  Linda Pastorino April 2, 2011 at 2:52am

  Most of the ones like this I have seen are new or really bad. This is a beautiful one. I particularly like the tassels on each side
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  Joost Daalder April 2, 2011 at 4:38pm

  This piece was bought in the late eighties (I think) from Mia van Bussel in Amsterdam, who then sold very high quality ethnic jewellery. As she found it increasingly difficult to locate pieces of a high enough standard and at prices that enabled her to sell them for realistic even if substantial prices to her exacting clients, she gradually largely ceased dealing in this area. This happened to a number of excellent dealers who had truly great pieces until in the early nineties. The ethnic jewellery scene, after these people gave up, lost, for retail buyers, a number of very important sources of high-quality supply, and serious collecting became much harder. Mia's taste was (and is!) excellent, as was her ability to distinguish between fully tribal and "authentic" pieces and those which were  spurious or showed serious aesthetic decline.
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  Linda Pastorino April 2, 2011 at 5:01pm

  Hi, I had heard of her for years and had not the fortune of meeting her. I started going in the mid 90's for the shows there. Many stores selling jewelry have since closed as well.  Several dealers having great goods in Paris also closed. The supply and demand issue is the key. Unless old collections become available there are just so many good items left to purchase and it's almost impossible to find things in country of origin and if you do they are extremely expensive, rightly so in my opinion as it was alway undervalued compared to western jewelry.
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  Joost Daalder July 2, 2011 at 6:43am

  Linda, I think you are right about the tassels on each side as a plus, but I also greatly like the corals, the two rows (very unusual), and the wonderful red cord-structure!
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  Alaa eddine SAGID July 2, 2011 at 9:13am

  Very nice old elements indeed, but i a inclined to think that this necklace have been deeply reorganised by the moroccan dealer who first sold it.

   

  The side little square pendants are in no way coming from the same area as the spirals round pendants. they originate in the middle east
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  Joost Daalder July 2, 2011 at 10:13am

  For sure, Ayis, the piece is likely to be a mixture, as you indicate - and as so often! What Linda pointed at in drawing attention to the square pendants was that they appealed to her, not implying that this was a pure Moroccan feature. To me the discs and coral matter the most, and after that the red cord structure, which I think goes well with the remainder. As you say, the thing must certainly have been (re) assembled.
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  Alaa eddine SAGID July 2, 2011 at 10:22am

  he discs with spirals are one of the highlight of moroccan berber jewelry, they have an out of this world (very modern or very untimy) feeling to them.

   

  But, it is fully understandable that the dealers rearranged many necklaces, since they were poorly threaded  for it was the woman  job to source different components and to assemble them. not a silversmith duty.
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  Linda Pastorino July 2, 2011 at 1:21pm

  Many necklaces from Morocco have been changed around for years even during the life of the wearer not to mention as it's life to foreign buyers. Morocco has been a tourist desnitaion since the 19th c so many times necklaces could have been re done. This one looks very good compared to most I have seen and at least the disks and coral and stringing is old. Whether it is together from the beginning or not is not as important as the componants being good. These disks pieces are always valuable and are the most recongnizable of Moroccan jewelry.
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  Joost Daalder July 2, 2011 at 1:37pm

  @Ayis - yes the discs are THE most important feature, to me also, and I remember mentioning that to Truus when we bought it; and @Linda: thanks very much for your post, and I totally agree with everything you say. I am glad you like the piece so much - it remains one of my personal favourites too. We very nearly did NOT buy it, for it was pricey, but soon changed our minds towards thinking of it positively only, and have never regretted that, for we do think it is uncommonly good. I like the two rows of discs, the branch coral (beautiful), and the way the red cords "pick up" the graphic lines formed by the branch coral, in a way completing a circle of red.
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  Linda Pastorino July 2, 2011 at 3:49pm

  I might add they look incredibly good on. I have sold many of my best Moroccan pieces that I owned and love wearing them for the color etc. I never had this model however and always wanted one. You don't see good old ones.  I think the combination of the large disks which are so graphic and the way these necklace splay on the body is incredible. I first saw this when I first met Colette Gysels in the 70's. She had it for sale a spectacular one and it was a fortune then when I was making a salary of a sales girl in a shop. Then I was spending hundreds for necklaces which was a fortune for me but this necklace at the time was several thousand dollars. I rememer that like it was yesterday and how some day I wanted one. Not to have happened... oh well!