Visible Beauty, Hidden Meaning

Visible Beauty, Hidden Meaning

by | General jewellery topics

Jewellery conference

Visible Beauty, Hidden Meaning

Published on August 05, 2024

What do you do to celebrate your PhD? Throw a party of jewellery talks! I hosted the symposium Visible Beauty, Hidden Meanings in June 2024, bringing together artists, historians, makers, archaeologists and wearers, to discuss personal adornment in the widest sense of the world and from multiple angles. The room in the National Museum of Antiquities was packed with a curious and engaged audience, and well, what can I say: this afternoon was some serious fun!

Visible Beauty, Hidden Meanings: the title

First, why this title? ‘Hidden Meanings’ does not refer to sensational secret codes (hope you were not expecting that), but to the many meanings a piece of jewellery can have. And those meanings are not always straightforward, especially when the observer is from another culture, or from another timeframe, or both.

Speaking for myself, my grandmother could read and explain details in the traditional jewellery of her region that I do not even spot unless they are pointed out to me. Same culture, but different timeframe.

Imagine doing that as an archaeologist, looking at jewellery of thousands of years ago: different culture, different timeframe – and no one to ask!

On top of that, our various disciplines and cultural backgrounds result in us looking at jewellery and adornment differently, too. A maker will spot technical details sooner, a wearer will see what does and does not work, a historian traces shapes and symbols to a wider context.

‘Meaning’ may simply be hidden to us, because we may see a lot of adornment, but we don’t know what to look for.

So, what I wanted to do on this afternoon, is bring together experts from a variety of fields to look at adornment together, share their way of seeing and engaging with adornment, and learn from each other’s viewpoints. A wonderful aspect in that respect was that none of us is only just one thing: you can be an archaeologist, a wearer, a maker and a practitioner all one, or a maker, wearer and researcher. Just like jewellery, people carry multiple perspectives, too, and that is what made this afternoon of cross-overs so inspiring.

Enthralled audience at the symposium Visible Beauty, Hidden Meanings, organised by Sigrid van Roode
Fatima Oulad Thami answering questions from her enthousiastic audience at the symposium Visible Beauty, Hidden Meanings, organised by Sigrid van Roode

Living Adornment

Salma Ahmad Caller opened the symposium with a thought-provoking talk on jewellery and our imagination. What does it mean to adorn oneself? Using adornment as classification tool for ‘Peoples & Types’ heavily relies on only sight as medium, practiced by external observers, and limiting our understanding – but adornment also has profound bodily aspects as well, known only to the wearer. Supported by Salma’s beautiful art works, this talk was a fantastic opening not just of the symposium, but of our minds.

Fatima Oulad Thami took us through Moroccan henna as living, changing heritage. She shared her own experiences as both a henna wearer and henna artist with us, as well as her journey into history and research of this art form. Fatima explained how henna as colorant is used not just for skin or hair, but also on fabrics, connecting the body to things through similar treatment. She also highlighted the bodily sensations of henna, such as its scent, and its capacity of cooling the skin, and its powerful presence in a number of social contexts such as weddings and festivities, and informal rituals.

Fatima explored henna as living heritage through changing patterns, changing modes of application, and a changing clientele. As henna traditions are mainly oral, and not written down in pattern books for example, there is much that may be lost in the near future, and I think we all felt the importance of Fatima’s work.

Wafa Ghnaim tuned in from New York to share her latest research into Palestinian dress, with a focus on headdresses. Wafa learned to embroider from her mother at a very young age, and has since combined her ancestral art with education, research and activism – if ever you’d need a clear example of the profound meaning traditional adornment has in today’s world, Palestinian tatreez is it.

Wafa showed us how adornment expresses identity on so many levels: of a people and culture as a whole, of a region in particular, and finally, the hardest level of identity to trace but the most powerful of them all, that of the person who made and wore an item of dress.

Adornment outside its living context

These first three talks set the scene for the length and width of jewellery and adornment as experienced by living cultures. For archaeologists and jewellery historians, this overview is a bit daunting, as we’re left with only the material remains of a society. We simply have no idea of any of the kind of traditions, customs, habits, and ‘ways of doing things’ a living culture has. But as the next three speakers showed, there is still a lot to be learned.

Karsten Wentink took us back to prehistory with his research into the earliest gold ornaments from The Netherlands. These are mysterious things: beautiful, but we have absolutely no idea how they were worn. By comparing similar items from other parts of Europe, and asking a skilled goldsmith to study the technical details, we may get an idea of how these things were handled in the past. And what is more, these objects were decorated, which led to a lively exchange of thoughts with Fatima on the importance and meaning of patterns on both skin and things.

Yvonne Lammers addressed one of the most difficult aspects of the past to grasp: spirituality and ritual. She drew fascinating parallels between the grave of a richly adorned woman from medieval Fyrkat, Sweden, and wicca practices of her own experience. She based her argument on analysis of the items found with the woman, including hallucinatory aspects of organic materials, contemporary tales of magic and witchcraft, and sensory elements. Here, we looked back at Salma’s talk again: dare we use our imagination and acknowledge this woman as a seeress?

Kim van Zweeden then showed us sentimental and mourning jewellery from the relatively recent past, the 19th and 19th centuries. Here as well, we need to understand the cultural context to get an idea of what all these skulls and fascination with death actually meant. Adornment can be a powerful way to connect with loved ones, either living or dead, and we lingered a while on the intimacy of using another person’s hair in ornaments worn on the body, a topic Jolanda reflected on with her research in dressing the hair of the dead in ancient Egypt.

The audience of the symposium Visible Beauty, Hidden Meanings engaging with books and objects.
Sigrid van Roode trying out replica prehistoric ornaments of Karsten Wentink's research project.
Jolanda Bos sharing her research into the sensory aspects of face veils at the symposium Visible Beauty, Hidden Meanings, organised by Sigrid van Roode

A caleidoscope of adornment studies

Jolanda Bos wrapped all previous topics up in her talk on the sensory aspects of personal adornment. She whisked us through time, from the ancient world to contemporary practices, and showed us how hairstyle, dress and jewellery all work together. For this, she shared many examples from her research on kohl containers from both ancient Egypt and the modern world, face veils, and hairstyles from Amarna.

Here, we touched on perceptions as well as sensations. Perceptions, as Western Egyptologists have long struggled with the concept of greasing one’s hair (even with delightfully perfumed wax), while this makes total sense to people used to caring for African hair. And sensations, in the smell, weight and sounds of face veils, which Jolanda is also working on. A beautiful final talk to conclude an afternoon of adornment studies!

To support the talks, each speaker also brought objects from their own research for the audience to see, touch, smell, and ask about. Jolanda, for example, brought kohl containers and face veils, of which one still retained some of its smell. A fascinating sensation to breathe in the same fragrance as the wearer once did! Fatima recreated a wedding henna set-up with a sugar cone, henna leaves and a bracelet placed atop the cone, Karsten had recreated some of the prehistoric ornaments for us to try, and Yvonne brought replicas of the Fyrkat seeress’ outfit.

This ‘table of things’ formed a perfect medium for our audience to share their thoughts, ask questions and follow up with the speakers during the break and after the last talk.

Visible Beauty, Hidden Meanings: new beginnings

What happens when a henna artist, an archaeologist and a witch walk into a bar…? That is what we did afterwards: get a drink and a bite to eat, and reflect on the afternoon. Turns out, we all loved to hear other perspectives, but also to recognize elements of our own field of study in that of someone else.

For me personally, that flow of recognition was the best part of the entire afternoon: we may all be working with totally different objects in completely different contexts, but by using our collective imagination and inspired by the results and viewpoints of others, new things emerge. This symposium was just too good to leave it at a one-time event: I’ll be definitely organizing more of these in future, so stay tuned and watch this space!

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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, 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 the senses: sight

Jewellery and the senses: sight

by | General jewellery topics

Sensory research

Jewellery and the senses: sight

Published on August 02, 2024

Ethnic jewellery is often studied for its aesthetic, symbolic, and material qualities. But there is much more to it, that is difficult to study from a book or when a jewel is lying in a museum case…and that is the sensory experiences it evokes for its wearers and the people around it. And imagine, for archaeological jewellery that is even harder, as there is no one left to ask! So, I wanted to introduce the relationship between jewellery and the senses: what did a piece of jewellery mean for its wearer? And what do we miss out as researchers and collectors, coming from another culture or timeframe? In this first article, we’ll look at sight.

Jewellery and sight: a very human aspect

Sight might be the most obvious sense. Jewellery, after all, is literally made to be seen. And that is one of the most exciting things I can think of: did you know that jewellery is the first thing ever made by humans, that is not immediately practical, like a tool?

The earliest form of adornment known to date (they keep getting unearthed, so this may change in the future) is a set of shell beads found in Bizmoune Cave, in what today is Morocco. [1] Some 142,000 years ago, some created a necklace of shells here. Just think of what that means: this early human knew how to make an impression. They were aware of their own self, and they knew how to manipulate the impression they made on others.

Wearing jewellery helps to regulate social interaction, and apparently, we have been doing that for a very long time.

Want to see how long? The Ancient Jewellery-course brings you 5,000 years of jewellery history in the Middle East and North Africa!

Jewellery and sight: social information

Fast-forward from the distant past to our timeframe. The Maasai of East Africa use beaded jewellery to signify age, marital status, and social roles. [2] Each colour and pattern has a specific meaning, creating a visual language that communicates complex social information at a glance – if you know how to read them, of course.

And that goes for almost all jewellery. The tizerzai or clothing pins from the Maghreb communicate tribal affiliation as well as geographic location: the decoration on pins in one village may be every so slightly different from those in the next village, the amount of jewellery someone wears, has a lot to say about their wealth, and specific symbols may be used to indicate which religion they adhere. It’s all meant to be seen.

Serving as visual communicator is an important capacity of jewellery, and one that directly involves others: the wearer, and the persons around them. ‘I wear this jewellery so you can see who I am’.

Jewellery and sight: showing complex knowledge

And sometimes, there is even serious knowledge hidden in plain sight! The most spectacular example I can think of, comes from the Bronze Age in Europe. It’s a huge, pointy hat (very Harry Potter-style) made entirely of thinly hammered sheet gold. It is decorated with regularly spaced bands and repeating patterns. A curious headdress, you might say, and leave it at that. Until someone started looking at these in earnest. The ‘decoration’ turned out to be a calendar – and not just any calendar, but an intricate system that combines lunar and solar calendars. [3]

Jewellery and sight: a visual language

Apart from communicating identity or displaying knowledge, there is more to seeing jewellery. It can also convey intent, or subtle messages the wearer does not want to say out loud. And jewellery can be designed to frighten both people and evil spirits.

In real life, war adornment combined with body paint is often intended to put fear into the hearts of adversaries on the battle field, such as in Papua New Guinea. For invisible presences, those bright colours, intricate designs, and even the reflective qualities of metals catch the attention, and avert that attention away: the basic principle behind the Evil Eye.

Is evil eye jewellery good or bad? Find out in this blog!

An example from Siwa Oasis, in Egypt, is when a woman would wear her head jewellery just slightly differently: it told her mother-in-law that not all was well in the marriage. [4] Here again, you’d have to know these subtle codes to understand them: ‘I wear my jewellery so you can see what I want or need’.

Jewellery and sight: the perspective of the viewer

This aspect of sight is also in play when it comes to the size of jewels, or their placement on the body. Large jewellery can be seen from a distance, but to see their decoration, you’d have to be closer to the wearer. When it comes to warding off evil, jewellery can be active over several distances. The shimmering and movement of jewellery can be seen from afar, and when any evil forces should be closer, the intricate decoration patterns as well as protective texts are powerful barriers, too.

And that is not just for invisible powers: the distance of sight also works wonders for the age-old practice of keeping up appearances. On first glance, a person might be seen wearing a fortune in coin jewellery; only upon closer inspection, they may turn out to be imitations.

Jewellery and sight: hiding from view

On the other side of seeing is invisibility. Some jewels, or other forms of personal aesthetic such as tattoos, are not meant to be seen by all and sundry. They are deliberately hidden from view, worn underneath clothing or, in the case of jewellery, decorated on the reverse side – the side only known to the person wearing it.

See an example with a hidden image from Oman here.

Jewellery and sight: aesthetics are not to be overlooked

As you see, the visual impact of jewellery is huge: it conveys status, identity, and cultural affiliation. It also depends on the distance between you and the viewer what the latter will see: a given you can make deliberate use of. And there is that which you want to keep private: playing with visibility and invisibility is one of the most powerful capacities of jewellery.

And that is also where research comes in: you’d have to realise you may be looking at visual codes, instead of just a pretty colour combination or lovely pattern, to fully understand the social and cultural context of the jewellery. Aesthetics are not simply decorative, but are deeply tied to the identities and traditions of the wearers. They tell us how these pieces function within their communities.

In the next installment on the sensory dimensions of jewellery, we’ll be looking at touch!

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References

[1] Sehasseh et. al. 2021, Early Middle Stone Age personal ornaments from Bizmoune Cave, Essaouira, Morocco, in: Science Advances vol. 7 no. 39. Read it here

[2] See for example this blog

[3] Menghin, W. 201. Der Berliner Goldhut. Macht, Magie und Mathemathik in der Bronzezeit. Schnell-Steiner

[4] M.M. Vale 2015. Siwa: Jewelry, Costume, and Life in an Egyptian Oasis. AUC Press, Cairo

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.

The Art of the Ring: book review of the Griffin Collection

The Art of the Ring: book review of the Griffin Collection

by | European jewellery, Reviews

Rings from the Griffin Collection

The Art of the Ring: book review

Published on July 31, 2024

Who does not love rings? I think it may be fair to say people have always been obsessed with them, and so they have been both produced ánd collected in large numbers. The Art of the Ring by Diana Scarisbrick presents highlights from one such collection, the privately held Griffin Collection, and offers both a visual and scholarly journey into ring history. In this review, I’ll walk you through its strengths, highlights, and how it compares with other landmark publications on rings.

The Griffin Collection: earlier publications

The Art of the Ring is the third volume in a series devoted to rings from the Griffin Collection. The collection is huge, and the two previous books have zoomed in on one particular category of rings. Take this Ring explored medieval and renaissance rings, and I like my choyce presents the history of posy rings. The Art of the Ring takes another approach: here, the aim is to present a cross-section through the collection. In that way, you could think of this as the prequel to the other volumes: it introduces the collection.

Highlights of the Griffin Collection of rings

Introducing such a vast collection is no easy thing to do! The book presents 100 rings, some of which have been featured in other publications, and some are published here for the first time. This selection is divided into 8 chapters, each focusing on a certain type of ring. There are signet rings, devotional rings, Memento Mori and memorial rings, Love, Marriage and Friendship rings, rings related to daily life, rings set with coloured stones, diamond rings and rings with royal and noble associations. Each chapter sets out with an introduction on the central theme.

Comparing The Art of the Ring with other publications

These sections largely coincide with those of another publication by Diana Scarisbrick, Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty (2007). This book presents the Benjamin Zucker Family Collection, expanded with rings from museum and private collections to form a comprehensive overview of rings. That makes it very easy to read both books in tandem, compare both collections and as such expand your insight in the subject.

Photography and presentation in The Art of the Ring

Each ring in The Art of the Ring has its own ‘passport’: several photos, a description, and an explanation of what we see and how this particular ring fits into a wider context. And for each ring, you will also find an overview of its provenance (how did it end up in this collection?), where it has been exhibited, and where it has been published.

I did wish some of the photos would be larger. As there is a lot of information included per ring, the space allocated to photos of the ring itself sometimes just is not that much. For example, ring no. 20 is an Italian ring with a sardonyx cameo showing the Shroud of Turin: a magnification here would have been helpful, as the image itself is crisp, but on the small side. That is not to say all of them are small! Throughout the book, page-sized details allow the reader to take in splendid details. But where Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty presents large photos overall, the illustrations in The Art of the Ring are notably smaller.

European focus and perspectives in ring collecting

The Art of the Ring focuses on European rings, with Byzantine rings as the most ‘eastern’ representatives. The other two publications dedicated to the Griffin Collection also are firmly focused on the West  – at least, that we know of: perhaps this private collection holds more than has been published yet!

That perspective on European/Western rings appears in other books and other collections, too: there are few collections that include the Islamic world as well. Such as the Benjamin Zucker Family Collection, which holds a large number of Islamic rings, and which have been published in Islamic Rings & Gems. The Zucker Collection.

Why is that perspective important? One example from The Art of the Ring may illustrate this point.

The Italian sapphire ring with Arabic inscription

That is the super stunning Italian inscribed gold ring with a sapphire carrying an Arabic inscription. It is featured in both The Art of the Ring and in Cycles of Life, also drawing from the Zucker collection – jewellery travels, and this ring has moved from one collector to another. See an image of this beautiful ring here.

In Cycles of Life, the discussion of this particular ring is very complete, with a presentation of two parallels. The same ring is also briefly featured in Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty, and now in The Art of the Ring as well – with a most breathtaking photo. In all three books, the sapphire is treated as ‘the odd one out’, a rare stone to be included in an Italian ring. But when browsing through the two volumes of Ruby, Sapphire & Spinel: An Archaeological, Textual and Cultural Study (2016), where sapphires are discussed in their cultural context throughout time, we learn much more about the importance and meaning of sapphire as well as inscribed Islamic gems. Such a wider scope would make this collection even more fascinating.

The Art of the Ring in context of other ring books

As I said above, this volume is dedicated to the Griffin Collection. As with all collections, the choices of the collector determine what the scope of the collection is, and so I enjoyed comparing The Art of the Ring with a few other collections that live on my bookshelves. This is, incidentally, why you would want to own not just one book on rings: it’s when they all get together that you’ll start learning!

By the same author, there is the book I already mentioned, Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty (2007), with the Benjamin Zucker Family Collection as its core. This collection starts earlier, timewise: where the Griffin Collection seems to start out with Greek and Roman rings, the Zucker Collection also holds Egyptian rings (that’s another 3,000 years of rings).

That same collection is also published in Cycles of Life which uses a different approach in linking rings to stages in our lives: birth, marriage, death, eternity, and everyday life. This book adds more descriptive detail to its 41 rings, and discusses parallels for each piece as well, something that The Art of the Ring does not.

And where The Art of the Ring is organised thematically, the V&A publication on its ring collection Rings is built chronologically. Both books are still quite comparable, with many examples from the same timeframes featuring in both books.

Although this brief comparison is clearly far from exhaustive, it hopefully gives you some idea of the nature of The Art of the Ring in relation to other books on European ring collections.

Conclusion: why The Art of the Ring is a beautiful book

Whether you are working as a curator, collector, or simply adore rings, The Art of the Ring is a book you will want to own.

It is expertly written and presents an engaging introduction in the beautiful ring collection of the Griffin Collection. It complements the previous two volumes wonderfully, and is also a great companion volume to Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty. But even without its sibling books, The Art of the Ring is a volume that very well holds its own – it’s a wonderful overview of rings.

The only drawback is the size of some photos, notably for the rings that have not been published before, but I really enjoyed this book as a valuable introduction into a collection of which I hope many more volumes will be published!

More about The Art of the Ring

The Art of the Ring. Highlights from The Griffin Collection.

By Diana Scarisbrick (2024). 240 pages, full-colour, in English. Published by AD ILISSVM/Paul Holberton Publishing.

I received the book as review copy.

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Bibliography

Church, R. 2017. Rings. Thames & Hudson/V&A

Content, D.J. 2016. Ruby, Sapphire & Spinel: An Archaeological, Textual and Cultural Study, Brepols

Content, D.J. (ed) 1987. Islamic Rings & Gems. The Zucker Collection. Philip Wilson Publishers

Hindman, S. 2014. Cycles of Life. Rings from the Benjamin Zucker Family Collection. Les Enluminures

Hindman, S. 2015. Take this Ring. Medieval and Renaissance Rings from the Griffin Collection. Les Enluminures

Scarisbrick, D. 2007. Rings. Jewelry of Power, Love and Loyalty. Thames & Hudson

Scarisbrick, D. 2021. I like my Choyce. Posy Rings from the Griffin Collection. AD ILISSVM/Paul Holberton Publishing

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.

Coin jewellery in the Middle East

Coin jewellery in the Middle East

by | Objects

Research project

Coin jewellery in the Middle East & North Africa

Published on July 29, 2024

One of the most common sights in jewellery from North Africa and Southwest Asia is the use of coins. This is a widespread custom throughout the region, and beyond. You’ll see coins decorating headbands and face veils, dangling from chains and temple ornaments and sitting in rings, brooches and bracelets. But what is the point of coins in jewellery? Can you pay with them? I’m explaining in this article, and excited to tell you more about my new research project, too!

Coin jewellery: origin

To our eyes, any monetary value coins in jewellery may have, is annulled by their treatment to make them decorative. They may be pierced and sewn onto clothing or strung onto metal wire; they might be hammered into dish-like shapes, soldered onto diverse items of jewellery or even decorated with glass, coral or semi-precious stones. Sometimes, they are so densely covered with enameling that you’ll need to flip one over to see that underneath that is an actual coin. So, what’s up with that?

The answer goes back far in time. Coins were an indication of an established silver (or gold) content in the times before hallmarks and assay offices existed. Those were only developed during the 19th century, so during the millennia before that, coins were things whose value was directly related to their silver content.

No matter if you drilled a hole through it or folded it double, a coin would still be worth its value in the weight of its silver content: archaeological excavations have shown coins to be simply chopped into pieces, which each continued to be valid methods of payment.

Because of their guaranteed silver content, there were two coins which were appreciated much more than others: the Maria Theresia Thaler from Austria, and the columnario or pillar dollar from Spain.

Find out more on the Maria Theresia Thaler here

See why the Pillar Dollar was the first international coin here

Coins retained this importance until a gold standard was established. From that moment on, a coin represented a certain amount of gold in the state’s treasury: the basic concept of money, as we know it today. But by that time, the practice of wearing coins in jewellery had well and truly taken hold, and that is why you’ll still see modern currency jingling from necklaces and veils.

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

Coin jewellery: the one thing to be aware of

Before we dive into the fun stuff, there is one myth I’d like to bust here. With all these wonderfully dated coins in jewellery, it is tempting to date an entire piece based on the age of the coins you find in it. After all, when a coin in a necklace is from, say, 1865, surely the piece itself is that old, too? Well….no. Big no-no. This is where you need to look extra closely at the piece itself.

With coins, the thing is that there are so many of them. Thousands of them still circulate. Old coins, and by that I mean coins from the 19th or early 20th century, are still available by the strand in some cases. They have been used as pendants for example, and when the original necklace was taken apart, they were simply gathered and put to use elsewhere.

So just picture it: I could take a few of those, string them into a necklace with a variety of beads, and I’d have a necklace that is made as recently as, well, tomorrow.

A coin alone does not date a piece.

Here are 5 tips to spot if a necklace has been restrung.

And here are 5 pointers on how to tell if jewellery has been altered in general – and when that matters.

A faceveil from Palestinian/Egyptian Bedouin, showing coins.

Coin jewellery: research possibilities

And now: the fun stuff! In addition to the pillar dollar and the MTT, many local and regional coins were worked into jewellery or costume ornaments. These are usually taken from the currency of the immediate region. And this is where it gets interesting! Here are just a few examples.

On the Arab Peninsula, local coins are found alongside Indian rupees. These rupees, in turn, are not found in jewellery any further west than Egypt. In the Maghreb, coins from nearby Spain, as well as France and Italy are common (the latter two because of colonization). Here, you may find Italian Victor Emmanuel coins, and France’s gold napoleons, but those are rarely seen east of Libya.

So, you see how the variety of coins worn as jewellery indicates the larger group which the wearer was in contact with. You could literally draw a map based on coinage found in jewellery, and see how jewellery allows us to trace geopolitical and economical spheres of influence. Jewellery also illustrates the visual effect of larger political landscapes: in those countries that formed part of the Ottoman empire for example, many Ottoman coins are found alongside more regional currencies.

Occasionally, coins also bear testimony to the existence of greater trade distances. One example is a pair of Moroccan fibulas, fitted with Dutch lion dollars. Or what to think of a Saudi-Arabian coin that ended up on a Turkmen guljaka or coat button, or Moroccan earrings with wartime US pennies? Each of these has a story to tell.

Coin jewellery: historic jewellery

The research possibilities that coins in jewellery have to offer, are huge. That’s why I have initiated a new project aimed at bringing this aspect of jewellery as a historic source to life. The result will be a comprehensive overview of coins used in jewellery and personal adornment, and of course I will be sharing regular updates on the blog. Interested in learning more? Drop me a line!

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The Bedouin Silver blog gives credit where credit is due! Transparent referencing and citing sources helps us all grow. Would you like to do the same and quote this article? 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.