Textiles in Motion

Textiles in Motion

by | Ancient jewellery, Reviews

Dress research

Textiles in Motion

Published on August 08, 2024

When the study of ancient personal adornment meets lived experiences, magic happens! Textiles in Motion. Dress for Dance in the Ancient World is filled with interdisciplinary study in which ancient textiles come to life, statues swirl and the past jingles.

Textiles in Motion: the outline

This book is one of the results of a much larger project focusing on Etruscan dance through textile studies. Its contents extend wider than Etruria though, and present us with articles grouped in 6 distinct parts. First, you’ll find practical perspectives on dance and clothing, followed by Movement and Design, Embodiment and Communication, Cognition and Sensory Experience, Images and Metaphors, and even Modern Reception.

The contributions take us all over the ancient world: from the Mediterranean to China, from Bronze Age Europe to dancing Egyptologists. What will you find in this book? I’m not going to cover it all (because, spoiler alert) but will take you through my favourite chapters.

Textiles in Motion: dance in action

The first contribution, Practical perspectives on dance and clothing, is one I like best in this book. It’s written in a very approachable style, and weaves current-day dance experience together with the study of ancient textiles. I mean, even the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders make an appearance! The combination of folkloric dance experience and textile study makes this one of the most relatable and enjoyable chapters in the book. I found the notion of ‘showing off’ during dance particularly valuable –  it brings a new dynamic to the study of ancient textiles.

That is followed-up immediately by the next chapter, which introduces the design and construction of woollen skirts from eastern Central Asia. These were made some 2,000 years ago, and this chapter shows how they were actually designed to move. Through a combination of scientific research and technical recreation, these skirts were seen moving again the for the first time in millennia: a great example of how creating and wearing replicas of ancient textiles may help us understand their functionality.

That same combination of research with recreations is also what makes chapter 8 fascinating. Here, we move to Iron Age Europe, so even further back in time to around 800 – 400 BCE. Elite ladies from the Hallstatt culture in this timeframe wore jewellery that jingled, and what I found really interesting in this contribution is that the sound they produce has been analysed for its wavelength: individually and together, to create an idea of the ‘soundscape’ of these ladies.

I do wonder if that sound may have been altered slightly due to the corrosion on the jewels – I can’t quite make out if this analysis has been done with original jewels, replica jewels, or both. Either way, it’s super cool research – because it also involves reenactment of ancient dance poses by dancer dressed in replica garments and jewellery.

This way, both the movement of textile and the sounds produced could be studied. From there, further research is suggested into the ‘sound fields’ that these elite ladies emitted: could you, as an Iron Age person, judge from the specific jingle of their ornaments what status they have?

Textiles in Motion: dancing statues

Another field of study is that of 3D objects, like statues. The third chapter examines beautiful terracotta and bronze statues from ancient Greece, showing women who clearly are moving – but are they dancing, and if so, how? This chapter reads almost like a detective, piecing clues about the type of textile, how it was fastened, and which movements could may made – or not.

I also really enjoyed the elaborate discussion on Roman household gods, the lares. These gods were present in nearly every household, either in the form of little statuettes or painted on the wall. The author goes over pose, dress and personal appearance in great detail, and after reading this contribution I figured myself not much of an archaeologist – because I never realised that they, clearly, dance. How cool is that, to have dancing gods in your home? The author calls them ‘the festive guardians of the prosperity of the household’ (p.66), which is at, least to me, a new angle from which to observe these very familiar gods.

Textiles in Motion: the body, the senses, and dance

Multiple chapters discuss dance, personal appearance and the senses in Ancient Egypt. To share just one of these, the contribution on tattoos in ancient Egypt explores the relation between the body and elements of dress, the art of writing in Egypt and divine service. By considering tattoos as clothing, they gain an entirely new meaning in the context of dance: while dance is a performance that is temporal, tattoos are permanent.

Textiles in Motion – an inspiring book

This is a book about so much more than ‘just’ textiles and dance: it approaches dance in Antiquity across the full range of the senses. That is what makes it an absolutely inspiring book to me. Many of the chapters are illustrated with well-chosen images, and what I also picked up while reading this volume, was a sense of fun: in several contributions, the authors really seemed to have enjoyed what they were doing. That is usually the best way to embark on any type of research!

In combining sources such as texts, images and actual remains with sensory experiences, the past becomes a vivid place. Its interdisciplinary approach and openness to new avenues of exploration adds significantly to how we may understand movement and the senses in the past – an understanding that brings the people of that past much closer.

Whether you are into the history of dance, or an archaeologist or historian (or all of them), this is a volume I highly recommend!

More about Textiles in Motion

Textiles in Motion. Dress for Dance in the Ancient World.

Edited by Audrey Gouy (2023). 208 pages, full-colour, in English. Published by Oxbow Books: see here for more info and ordering.

I received the book as review copy.

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Would you like to quote this article? Please do! Here’s how:

S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

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, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on the jewellery of the Egyptian zar-ritual. 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.

Jewellery and dress

Jewellery and dress

by | Opinion

Two fields of research

Jewellery and Dress

Published on July 26, 2024

Jewellery from the Middle East and North Africa is always part of a larger ensemble: it is linked closely to other elements of personal appearance such as clothing and body aesthetic. Often, it’s not even possible or even necessary to discern where jewellery ends and dress begins. I believe the two are too often presented as separate, while in many cases, they are created to fit together. And on the other hand, I also believe they are two distinct fields of research. So how does that work?

Jewellery and dress: a practical connection

Starting out with the most practical connection: that where jewellery is an integral part of dress. Many jewellery items are designed to fasten clothing or to keep textiles in place: they are as much part of one’s attire as zippers are. That is not limited to North Africa and Southwest Asia: many cultures around the world use an astounding amount of pins, hooks, clasps, and buttons. All of these can be beautifully decorated and some of them are really meant to catch our attention, like the huge toggle buttons worn on the island of Sardinia (Italy), for example.

And when that costume changes, its jewellery changes along with it or even disappears. Many jewellery items are no longer worn, because the costume they were an integral part of, has changed. That is a super logical domino-effect, but one that is not always acknowledged.

Large silver buttons on a sleeve in Sardinia, Italy
A stunning hair pin from Sri Lanka, called kondakoora.

For example, the large Amazigh clothing pins, known as tizerzai, tiseghnas or khlel, that kept the traditional dress of the Maghreb secure, are no longer used as everyday wear, as these garments themselves are no longer worn – at least not widely or on a daily basis. The pins are however proudly worn on festive occasions: although their practical use has dwindled, their life as carrier of cultural identity certainly has not.

Another example is hair jewellery. Hairstyling is an important part of body aesthetic and of social practices, and jewellery was used to keep these wonderful hairdos in place. Here as well, changes in hairstyle bring about changes in jewellery, another example of how closely connected jewellery and dress are.

One example, from yet another region of the world, is the beautiful kondakoora hairpin, which was worn in Sri Lanka. This lavish pin, set with coloured zircons, was placed on hair tightly rolled into a bun. After this custom disappeared, the pins were repurposed as brooches.

See more about hair ornaments in this article – they’re also worn in surprising other fashions!

Learn to read jewellery! Four colourful images of online courses.

Jewellery and dress: glittering fabric

Other pieces of jewellery have become so associated with the textiles they are worn on, that it is useless to try and tell where the jewellery ends and the clothing begins.

Take the richly ornamented face veils from Sinai and Palestine for example, which combine both textile and jewellery traditions. The tatreez embroidery that is so well known from clothing is also used on the face veil, which also carries beads, coins and small pieces such as silver amulets. You’ll find these beads, coins and amulets in turn also strung onto necklaces or sewn on garments themselves.

And the flowing headveil shown above, worn in the region of Mount Lebanon, forms a unit with its stunning tapering tantour of embossed and chiseled silver.

The elaborate face veils of the Rashayda are also both an element of dress and of jewellery. These are made of textile with silver woven in, resulting in very heavy and glinting veils. These are further embellished with silver pendants and amulets, that may equally be worn as jewellery.

This tradition of textiles embellished with silver or even gold thread is found in many garments from the region. It’s called badilah or badla, telli or talli, zari or zardozi. In the Western world, the glittery fabrics from Egypt are commonly known as ‘Assiut’ textiles. [1] They are named after the Egyptian town of Assyut where these were produced as export product during the Roaring Twenties.

Spendid Rashayda dress and silver jewellery.

Jewellery and dress: patterns and designs

The line between jewellery and dress fades even more in the case of embroidered embellishments.

The chest panel of Egyptian Siwa oasis wedding dresses is embroidered in the pattern of an amulet necklace, and even the use of colour in some embroidery styles is similar to colours used in jewellery. And the chest panel of a dress from Bahariya oasis, also in Egypt, is decorated with shining applications. An example is above: click on the image to enlarge it.

The same goes for patterns and shapes used: not only common designs such as triangles, but specific shapes such as fish, tortoises, stars and floral designs exist both in jewellery and in dress as well as in body aesthetics – and beyond, such as in basketry, weaving, but also in architectural decoration like the painted symbols on houses.

It is their meaning to the wearer that is central, instead of a division by material or object category. In some cultures, these designs and meanings overlap on both jewellery and dress, amplifying one another, and in others they differ per material carrier, but work together as an ensemble.

Jewellery and dress: together, they are more

That is what I find so fascinating about the potential of jewellery as a historic source: comparing it to other elements of a person’s personal appearance, and looking beyond that to the complete setting of that person in their context of their home, family, and culture, shares a lot about how people viewed themselves. But: that takes a village.

For my line of work, for example, I would never call myself a dress specialist. That is simply not my area of expertise. Studying jewellery, on the other hand, is not something one can add ‘on the side’. Both fields are vast in and of themselves. The most meaningful (and fun!) projects I have been involved in, are those where dress and jewellery specialists work together: it’s exciting to see this many-layered heritage highlighted from different angles!

So, just like jewellery and dress are more than just adornment when studied together, those studies themselves become more than their single fields when specialists work together. Who wants to team up…?

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References

[1] For some reason, this is often misspelled as Assuit. I have no idea why, as the town really is called Assiut, not Assuit. A case of endless copy-paste from a faulty source, I think!

Would you like to quote this article? Please do! Here’s how:

S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

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, and obtained her PhD at Leiden University on the jewellery of the Egyptian zar-ritual. 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.

THOBNA

THOBNA

by | Reviews

Palestinian dress research

THOBNA. Reclaiming Palestinian dresses in the diaspora

Published Dec 22, 2023

What power does a dress hold, personally, but also historically? Wafa Ghnaim’s second book THOBNA. Reclaiming Palestinian dresses in the diaspora investigates the memory of women through their dress. The result is a book that is personal and powerful, a study that sets a new standard for dress research.

The book 'Oman Adorned. A Portrait in Silver' shown with an Omani gold and silver necklace.

THOBNA: our dress

The title, THOBNA, means ‘our dress’. That reflects the viewpoint of this book: it is written by a Palestinian artist and scholar. In the introduction, Wafa shares her evolving points of view and understanding since Tatreez and Tea was published. THOBNA focuses on resistance embroidery in its historical and actual context.

Palestinian tatreez: flipping the perspective

THOBNA regards dress as living history (p. 37). The importance here is the realization that the woman creating and wearing the dress is central to its decoration and the story it shares. Tracing back embroidery only to its historic roots will only get you so far: it has always moved in sync with its people.

The first two chapters discuss that perspective. First, the dress is placed in the historical context of its people. In doing so, Wafa questions the usual method of describing dresses as ‘pre- or post 1948’, ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’. By following the wider context of the history of Palestinian people, she is able to identify a much more detailed development in dress styles, tied directly to circumstances and historical shifts.

Next, she traces the embroidery styles that have contributed to tatreez and dress as they exist today to deeper history in the wider geographical area of Southwest Asia. Discussing sources and the role that museums objects can play in this type of research, she then zooms in on dress styles from the 1850s onwards.

This is an incredibly important chapter to read. It blends together detailed experiences of reality after 1948 with artistic and resistance developments.

Dress research: ten portraits

Ten Palestinian dresses are analyzed in detail and serve as a sampler of how much more information may be learned from thorough dress study. In this chapter, Wafa identifies the maker of a dress as ‘Maker Once Known’ instead of ‘Unknown Artist’ – a beautiful way of flipping the perspective again, of acknowledging a maker whose name we no longer know, but whose story is preserved in her dress.

And there is so much to be decoded in these dresses. An example that resonated with me is a dress from the Gaza region (p. 71). It was altered several times, its changing fabrics indicating displacement and wear by different persons. Importantly here, Wafa includes the history of the dress during the time it was with its collector – these, too, may have altered dresses and as such obscuring parts of its Palestinian biography.

Tatreez: symbolism and colour by decade

As a result of her in-depth study, Wafa reflects on symbolism and shares her insights on how to date a thobe by its colour scheme. This latter chapter is very important for anyone studying dress, as it provides not only colour schemes per century and per region, but also explains how these came to be and how they remained associated with regional identities even after the 1948 depopulation of these regions.

The symbolism chapter in particular is another example of living history. For jewellery, I can’t stress enough that any given symbol may carry different meaning for different people in different timeframes. Symbolism is never static. For the meaning of patterns on a dress, THOBNA adds the crucial insight that these not only vary over time and geographically, but also per family. Every family has its own history, its own way of expressing, and that is reflected in the forms chosen. And that brings me to the value of knowledge and how we achieve it.

Knowledge: lived, learned, passed on

If I were to describe THOBNA in one word, it would be understanding of knowledge (okay, that’s three). Apart from knowledge of historical events, as outlined above, there is Elder knowledge or ancestral knowledge to incorporate in research. Tangible heritage is always accompanied by intangible heritage: stories, poems, songs, expressions and personal memories. But these are rarely included in research. even though they contribute a unique perspective on living heritage.

Knowledge comes, for cultural outsiders, also in the form of awareness. In the last three chapters, Wafa shares many detailed stitches, materials, how-to’s, patterns and their meaning with us, and guides us clearly and gently in how to respect these properly.

 

“May THOBNA provide an artistic means for you to study and learn about Palestinian resistance from our perspective”

THOBNA: integral dress research

Do not expect easy lists or clear-cut criteria in this book, although the thobe diagram, colour guides and patterns provided are very detailed. Rather, immerse yourself in the ever-evolving world of dress and its people. Studying THOBNA will allow you to develop a deeper understanding of the multifaceted world of Palestinian dress, as seen through the eyes of a Palestinian researcher and artist.

That is what makes this book stand out, too. It combines the perspectives of scholarly research, indigenous living heritage and the actual experience of the artist. It discusses dress from all these perspectives, and it does so in the past, present and future tense.

That is how it sets a new standard for dress research: there are so many details to take into account to properly reconstruct the narrative of the creators and wearers of dress that it needs all these perspectives, not just the art historical point of view.

If you are in any way involved in Palestinian dress, either as a curator or a collector, you will really want to read this book.

And now even more so, because THOBNA was published in the summer of 2023. On p. 91, we read:

‘THOBNA is a commitment to reclamation. Therefore, Chapter 9 focuses primarily on the patterns stitched during the First and Second Intifada, when Palestinian women used tatreez as an artistic expression worn on their bodies that held the world to account for turning a blind eye to the suffering of Palestinians under Israeli occupation, reiterating their right of return and asserting their undeniable need for freedom.’

Since then, the truth in these words has become shockingly clear once again.

More information on THOBNA. Reclaiming Palestinian dresses in the diaspora.

Title: THOBNA. Reclaiming Palestinian dresses in the diaspora. By Wafa Ghnaim, 2023. 189 pages, full colour, in English.

Published by The Tatreez Institute, Washington D.C.

Available with the author and on Amazon.

More on Wafa’s work can be found here on the Tatreez and Tea website.

I received the book as thank you for the crowdfunding, which I am proud to have supported.

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Would you like to quote this article? Please do! Here’s how:

S. van Roode, [write the title as you see it above this post], published on the Bedouin Silver website [paste the exact link to this article], accessed on [the date you are reading this article and decided it was useful for you].

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.

Jewellery Museum Pforzheim

Jewellery Museum Pforzheim

by | Museums & Exhibitions

new perspectives

A visit to the Jewellery Museum, Pforzheim

The Jewellery Museum (Schmuckmuseum) in Pforzheim, Germany, is a must visit destination for anyone interested in jewellery and jewellery history. Here is what I saw during my last visit!

View into the Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim

Bedouin Silver | Pforzheim Schmuckmuseum

Sigrid van Roode looking at the waterfall of jewellery in the Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim

Bedouin Silver | Sigrid in Schmuckmuseum

View into the exposition room filled with rings in the Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim

Bedouin Silver | Pforzheim Ring Room

Four stunning rings from the collection of the Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim, against a black backround.

Bedouin Silver | Pforzheim ring selection

The museum houses a vast collection of jewellery, both from Europe and from other parts of the world. That jewellery is something that connects us, and expresses shared values, is highlighted in the room ‘What Is Jewellery?’. I featured an in-depth exploration of this theme by the museum in this blog, and seeing it for myself was a treat!

In this room (you’ll see an impression in the gallery of images above), the first thing that caught my eye was a sparkling waterfall of gold and gold-tinted jewellery cascading down from the ceiling in the central showcase. Jewellery from all eras and geographical locations is presented here in a seeming jumble that still is perfectly harmonious. As you can see by the slightly bewildered look on my face in the second photo, I enjoyed spending time peering into this showcase from all its sides, there is so much to see here! There is a sense of joy and playfulness in this installment that I believe is really important, too, in between the more serious aspects of jewellery history: just enjoying jewellery, simply for its own sake.

That same combination of jewellery from different times and places continues throughout the room. In every showcase, a different topic is highlighted that is shared by multiple cultures. The use of specific colours for example, or the values attached to jewellery, or the protective capacities it holds, or the social status it communicates. You’ll find jewellery here from North Africa, Oceania, Central Asia, India, Tibet, Nepal and other places combined with European jewellery. It is a multidisciplinary and integrated approach to what jewellery means to the society that used and created it, and I found it very valuable to start out my visit to the museum by pondering what jewellery is, exactly: it gets one thinking and provides context for the other collections.

Next were two rooms filled with jewellery history, from the Classical world until the revival pieces of the 19th century, and everything in between. I stayed here for a considerable time, because the museum boasts a formidable collection of historic rings, and these are shown here, too. Hundreds of them! If you have a thing for rings, this is the space for you. They are neatly organized in separate showcases, that each present a selection of rings in chronological and geographical order. You’ll see what that looks like in the third photo above. I did not really notice how brilliant this display was until I was done: because the rings are displayed in so many showcases, it feels like peeking into yet another treasure chest. Each showcase has just the right amount of rings, too: you’ll be able to enjoy them instead of reaching that point of overwhelm. I can’t recall having admired hundreds of rings and still being eager to see more: well done in terms of managing the attention span of visitors!

But there is more than rings: the showcases along the walls present necklaces, bracelets, earrings, tiaras and so much more, also in chronological order. A separate section with pocket watches brings jewellery and technique together, but I must admit that I spent most of my time with the jewellery exposition. The quality of the pieces shown here is also breathtaking: I created a collage of a few rings in the last photo above, to give you an idea of what awaits you. The exhibition continues with a bright, large room dedicated to more recent jewellery. Here, I saw dreamy, delicate Art Nouveau jewellery and modern jewellery creations: the art of jewellery craftmanship is still very much alive in Pforzheim.

After all that, it was time for a coffee in the pleasant museum café and perusing the well-stocked bookshop. I really like the themed publications such as Landscapes in Jewellery, Animal Myths in Jewellery, and Sun, Moon and Stars in Jewellery, but of course there is much more (see the bookshop here – the list of publications can be downloaded), and you will be able to find many jewellery pieces and other gifts.

I highly recommend visiting the Schmuckmuseum if you have the opportunity: with several temporary exhibitions every year, there is sure to be something that is of interest to you. The signage is bilingual in both English and German. Also check out the online magazine Melting Pot: lots of thought-provoking and interesting jewellery articles!

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Schmuckmuseum, Pforzheim, Germany: see practical info on their website (using the toggle in the upper right corner, you can set the language to German, English or French).

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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.

Glanz und Geheimnis

Glanz und Geheimnis

by | Museums & Exhibitions

a stunning private collection

Glanz und Geheimnis

A hidden gem: the exhibition of traditional silver jewellery and dress from the wonderful collection of Swiss collector Peter Hösli is on show in the Knauf Museum, Iphofen, until November 2023. I had the opportunity to visit this beautiful exhibition – so many rare pieces that I had to return for a second visit!

A stunning treasure of silver and beaded jewellery from North Africa and the Middle East.

Bedouin Silver | Glanz und Geheimnis

Omani necklace from the collection of Peter Hoesli

Glanz und Geheimnis | Oman

Yemeni necklace from the collection of Peter Hoesli

Glanz und Geheimnis | Yemen

Palestinian chin-chain from the collection of Peter Hoesli

Glanz und Geheimnis | Palestine

Bedouin dresses in the exhibition Glanz und Geheimnis

Glanz und Geheimnis | Bedouin dresses

First, what is the Knauf Museum? This is the museum that the Knauf family (if you have ever done home renovation, you have used their products) has founded in their hometown of Iphofen in Germany. Its permanent exhibition shows plaster casts of many famous archaeological sites and artworks from the Classical world, South America, Asia, and ancient Egypt. And in the newly added wing, the museum hosts a variety of temporary exhibitions on a wide range of cultural topics. This year, that topic is silver jewellery from the Arab Peninsula and the Levant, so I had to see this: lots of Bedouin jewellery, and much more!

The accompanying book was already a delight (see more about that here), but seeing these pieces in person and being able to observe every detail was, of course, even better. The exhibition is spread over two floors, and I loved the sight of a magnificent dress of as-Salt, Jordan, greeting me in the bright and airy conservatory between the new and the old wing. It circled gently, allowing visitors to admire its detail on every floor, and I personally thought this one of the best ways I have ever seen such a dress displayed. In case you don’t know what I’m talking about: these dresses are huge!

The jewellery pieces themselves were even more beautiful in real life. Polished to a shine, they were placed either lying down or mounted on mannequin heads. The showcases were spacious and accommodated the jewellery well, with each piece allocated enough ‘breathing space’ to be admired without being spread too thin. The only truly incomprehensible thing about the exhibition is the designers’ choice of background colour for the jewellery: detailed and delicate silver pieces become near invisible against the variegated grey background they were placed on. Instead of an even, contrasting colour, this melée of grey made dainty filigree and granulation very hard to see. A background colour for silver does not even have to be black…but I implore anyone thinking about a jewellery exhibition to just not use variegated grey. The jewellery deserves better.

And especially this jewellery, because like I wrote in the book review, you are in for a treat if you have a chance to see this exhibition. It shows many rare pieces that are impossible to find, such as Najd hair ornaments strung on a strip of cotton, superb filigree work from Yemen, and Palestinian ‘iznaq chin chains that made me gasp. The addition of dresses adds colour and life to the showrooms: several beautifully embroidered Bedouin gowns from Tiraz collection and a number of dresses from Peter’s own collection illustrated how adornment goes beyond just jewellery. And I really enjoyed seeing the small cotton pouches attached to Saudi women’s dresses, that once were filled with aromatics such as oudh…such a wonderful way of perfuming oneself.

In addition to the jewellery itself, a short film explained the various techniques of silversmithing in the Levant. This was curated by Salua Qidan of both Tiraz centre and Folkglory Designs. Seeing the jewellery made lifted something of the inevitable static nature of any exhibition, and I found this to be a very valuable addition to the exhibition itself. In the same room where the film could be watched, several fully dressed and adorned mannequins brought jewellery and dress together, and I loved seeing how the two interact.

If you are in the area, or have a possibility of traveling there, you should absolutely go see this exhibition!

Glanz und Geheimnis/Shine and Mystery

Knauf Museum, Iphofen, Germany

March 26 – November 5, 2023

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More museum recommendations on personal adornment from North Africa & Southwest Asia? Browse them all here!

Want to learn more about the world of Bedouin jewellery from Saudi Arabia, and traditional silver jewelry from the Middle East and North Africa as a whole? Check out the online courses!

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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.