Photos

Comments

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  Eva Baby November 28, 2011 at 7:26pm

  these are called Zinder Cross, or tenelt (= a bit of millet). It was used to buy millet (or other things) therefore the name. Zinder (its usual name) is a city in the Niger, I think in the Northeast, but I have to check this first. Zinder crosses had in principle the function of money and less of jewellery, but was also used as such. Some "rich" women have worn many such crosses around their neck to show their wealth or to have enough money available. Today it is more decoration. This form is usually made of low-silver content.
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  Eva Baby November 28, 2011 at 7:34pm

  I should have checked it first, the correct name is "tenelit" (meaning a bit of millet). It is used as means of payment by both, men and women. Men used to buy cattle or sheep with it. Today it is also produced in good silver as pendant, called Cross of Zinder.
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  Edith D November 28, 2011 at 7:55pm

  Thanks for the helpful information Eva!  Are these made by the Taureg or simply made for them by an urban jeweler?  My impression is that these are probably sand cast (perhaps from melted down coins)???
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  Eva Baby November 28, 2011 at 8:19pm

  the real ones are made by a Tuareg smith, mostly somewhere in the sand under a tree, using the lost form (wax), being surrounded by a clay form. When heated on the fire, the wax gets liquid inside and  is removed by a hole and the liquid metal mix is being put into the form. Once cold, the clay form is destroyed to take out the cross, which then is being decorated by the forgeron by hand.  Normally each piece is made separately the same way, there is (thank God) no industrial or machine production. Therefore each piece is unique in its way and none is exactly the same. The same the other Tuareg crosses are made, (this is called lost form, since the form is lost when cracking it open to remove the cross, each one is made completely anew from the beginning. The material used to be coin silver, from the so loved Maria-Theresia-Taler, but the Zinder crosses are made of metal-mix. Also other pieces are made of debased silver or mixes. They used to be produced only on order, if someone wanted a cross, he went with the material (Maria-Theresia Talers) to the Tuareg smith, and he produced what the person wanted. They were in older times not made in great numbers, only on orders, and the person ordering had to provide the material. Today it is different, and has become a collectors and or tourists business.
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  Edith D November 28, 2011 at 8:33pm

  Eva, this is great information, thank you!  Do you think this is a genuine piece (as opposed to a tourist item?)  I am not familiar with this type of item so I don't really know how to tell the difference.  The silver dealer was convinced that it had some age, and some of the rings appear to have wear.  I am less concerned with its age, and more interested in its ethnographic association...so as long as it was used in a genuine cultural context, I will be quite happy with this find.
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  Eva Baby November 28, 2011 at 8:39pm

  @Hi Edith, from the picture I would say, they are pretty sure genuine.  They are used, and had their life circle as means of money, but also worn around the neck. They are NOT tourist pieces, I am sure of that. Tourist pieces would be made of very good silver and they just look different. I am not the ultimate expert, but I am into this Tuareg culture since at least 20 years.
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  Edith D November 28, 2011 at 9:01pm

  Thanks, good news!  It was a strange find.  (I went into the shop to buy skhab beads and came out with this...I should search the bottom of the draws behind the counter more often!)
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  Suzan Kaplan November 28, 2011 at 9:11pm

  Thanks for showing us these Edith, and for the great, informative discussion about their making and use, Eva.
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  Eva Baby November 28, 2011 at 9:25pm

  @glad to hear that I could help. I don`t know skhab beads, but by the time I will find out.... These Zinder crosses came certainly  by transsaharan trade routes to Tunisia, this is not surprising at all. Morocco e.g. had once conquered part of the Mali empire, when it started to decease.. so the Moroccon influence in northern Mali (Timbuktu) is evident. Someone took these pieces up north.. from the NIger or Mali, perhaps for sold items and so they got to Tunisia.
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  Ethnic Embellishments November 28, 2011 at 10:27pm

  African traders often carry these.  Traders based in either New York or Los Angeles sometimes have these.  Some Moroccans (and perhaps Tunisians?) go to Niger to purchase jewelry for the resale market in Morocco, perhaps this happens in Tunisia as well.  It can work the other way around too, when dealers from Niger and Mali go to Morocco to sell, all part of the supply and demand chain of tourism.