Necklace Item Number: 3395/8 from the MOA: University of British Columbia

Description

Necklace holding a heavy pendant of multiple decorative pieces hanging from a central cylinder. The cylinder is decorated with hammered(?) designs - a swirl-like design around the centre loop, and bands of diagonal lines formed from dots around either end. Beneath the cylinder are seven rings, with two more on each end of the cylinder, each with ornaments attached. There are five large triangular pendants, each with smaller pendants attached below: crescent-shaped, Khamsa or palm-shaped amulet. A tracer chain with a hook and eye clasp is threaded through three loops, two on the cylinder, and one on the cylinder's lid.

History Of Use

Thought to be a prayer pendant box that would have been made for a Yemenite Jewish woman.

Narrative

This collection of North African (Berber) and Yemeni jewelry (3395/1-12) is said to have been purchased by the donor's parents in the 1990s, from bazaars in Tripoli, Libya.