North African jewellery
Dictionnaire des Bijoux
The Dictionnaire des Bijoux (Dictionary of Jewellery) by Paul Eudel presents jewellery from North Africa. It’s a resource that has been around for more than a century, and you’ll find a downloadable copy for your own use with this post. What does this book offer, and what do we need to know before using it?
Describing jewellery from North Africa: the colonial background
Before you think: ‘Why do I need to know how, why and when a book was made? I just want to see jewellery references!’ – bear with me. Especially with older books, it is important to have some idea of the aim with which they were written. And that is because that aim colours our understanding of jewellery today. So here we go.
Paul Eudel’s overview of jewellery from North Africa was published in 1906. The Dictionary of Jewellery is the product of a project that started well before the 1900’s. Eudel had first published his works on the works of jewellers in Algeria and Tunisia, followed by an essay on jewellers in Morocco.
During this timeframe, the Maghreb was colonized by France. It is against this background that the book has been compiled. Its purpose was not simply to document jewellery from a cultural perspective, but far more from an economical perspective. Knowing what types of jewellery existed and what materials went into them, provided a basis to calculate and impose everyone’s favourite: taxes. Taxes, that would flow into the economy of France.
A dictionary of jewellery: critical reading
The re-edition of this book which I read, features an introduction by Moroccan ethnologist Abdelmajid Arrif. That introduction adds very necessary context to the book. One of the points he makes, is that the very act of listing, documenting and presenting information into a dictionary is a very colonial thing to do.
Now of course every culture on earth has been making lists since writing was first invented. On a side note, writing was invented because humans wanted to make lists – the invention of writing is literally rooted in economy.
It gets colonial when a culture starts making lists of things encountered in another culture: cities captured, enemies killed, loot taken are hot topics in ancient inscriptions. But, also the seemingly innocent listing of jewellery types in a colonized region falls into that category.
Jewellery from the Maghreb: what do we miss?
So, what are we missing from these many pages of jewellery examples? Most importantly, all cultural context is left out. This book presents an overview of jewellery types and nothing more. It’s a catalogue of sorts. Some entries also tell us where a certain piece was worn, and some even by whom. But mainly, it’s a list of objects.
The oral histories that go with jewellery pieces are missing. Their meaning as wedding or dowry gift, the symbolism in their design, the songs jewellery features in, the art and creativity of the jewellery creators themselves…all that and more has no place in a dictionary. It’s like a phone book, more or less: it simply lists your contacts, but it does not capture their personality or your relationship with them.
Eudel’s dictionary of jewellery: what do we have?
If you have read this far, you might be wondering by now if this book is useful at all. It very much is! The main thing to keep in mind is that this book is not the definitive book on North African jewellery. Obviously, you would not reasonably expect a book of only roughly 200 pages to showcase all jewellery from four countries. But lists often have that effect: if it’s not on the list, it does not exist. This is the third filter of selecting: click here to see how that works!
What it absolutely is very valuable for, is the original names of things. This overview presents us with a wealth of jewellery pieces from the Maghreb, all listed with their own name. These are often missing from today’s descriptions outside of the Maghreb itself, so having access to these is a major advantage.
The drawback is that, well, you’d have to know their name to find anything (it’s a dictionary, after all), but the many illustrations speak for themselves and make it easier to find the piece you’re looking for. And I may be a little bit of a nerd, but I love starting at A and letting myself be surprised by what I encounter!
Those illustrations themselves are also incredibly helpful. A perfume container for musk, called meskia, is depicted both open and closed. The hundreds of detailed drawings bring the jewellery from North Africa to life and show us what they looked like around the beginning of the 20th century. As a time capsule, it is a very helpful resource to get an idea of the date of some jewellery pieces.
Dictionnaire des Bijoux de l’Afrique du Nord: an important resource
With all its pros and cons, the Dictionnaire des Bijoux is an important resource for North African jewellery. It is a starting point for research, in that it offers insight into the types of jewellery in existence in the late 19th and early 20th century. When you’re looking into North African jewellery, this book will be a great help with their vernacular names. And with those, you will be able to extend your search and learn more: see here how to go about that!
As it is an old book, it is widely available in pdf-form, and you’ll find a downloadable pdf below this blog. This is a digital scan of the original book, so in its original formatting and without additional explanations, introduction or indexes.
Personally, I like having a reprint in tangible form on my shelf: it makes for much easier reading and searching. Details of the book that is pictured above in the video and the photograph are below: this edition has been reformatted and includes the introduction by Abdelmajid Arrif, the essay on jewellers in Morocco, and an alphabetic index.
More information on Dictionnaire des Bijoux de l’Afrique du Nord
Title: Dictionnaire des Bijoux de l’Afrique du Nord. Maroc, Algerie, Tunisie, Tripolitaine. By Paul Eudel (1906), with an introduction by Abdelmajid Arrif 2014. 255 pages, b/w with a few colour images, in French.
Published by Editions Frontispice.
Available online and in well-sorted bookstores.
I purchased this republished book in the museum shop of the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris.
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Sigrid van Roode
Sigrid van Roode is an archeologist, ethnographer and jewellery historian. Her main field of expertise is jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia, as well as archaeological and archaeological revival jewellery. She has authored several books on jewellery. Sigrid has lectured for the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Turquoise Mountain Jordan, and many others. She provides consultancy and research on jewellery collections for both museums and private collections, teaches courses and curates exhibitions. She is not involved in the business of buying and selling jewellery, and focuses on research, knowledge production, and education only.