- Museum number
- Eu1995,10.1
- Description
-
Woman's necklace or head ornament, copper, the filigree work copper with silver plating, the coins possibily painted to enhance their colour; a double chain formed of pairs of filigree rosettes with an applied lozenge at the join, ending in triangular filigree clasps with hook and eye fittings, each set with a red glass stone and a further applied lozenge. From the lower row of rosettes are suspended five coins of Peter II of Yugoslavia (1934-45) all dated 1938: two 50 para, two 1 dinar and one 2 dinar piece, each with Kraljevina Jugoslavija (Kingdom of Yugoslavia) in cyrillic on obverse. The coins have filigree work surrounds, three of which are set with a blue glass stone, while the central coin has a more elaborate mount with two blue and one red glass stone. The coin medallions are attached to the filigree rosettes with no pendant ring.
- Production date
- 1920-1930
- Dimensions
-
Length: 44 centimetres
-
Width: 8 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- For a closely similar ornament in the Ethnographic Museum, Belgrade, see N. Pantelić, 'Traditional Arts and Crafts of Yugoslavia, Belgrade 1984, pp. 22, fig. 17, described as a 'Djerdan'. The necklace has a double row of coin pendants attached to similar triangular elements at each end; the coin mounts are very similar indeed, either a circular filigree surround with applied diamond-shapes and red or blue glass stones, or a crescent-shaped surround set with glass strones. According to Pantelić the 'djerdan' was a piece of jewellery for the breast, and examples of this type were 'worn by brides and younger Albanian women in the surroundings of Peć, Kosovo. Such jewellery was made by Albanian Catholic craftsmen in Peć in the 1920s, mostly for the Muslim inhabitants of the area.'
See also Joanna Minksztym, ‘Śladami Kanunu. Kuluira albanska w wieloetnicznym Kosowie’ (Following the Kanun. Albanian culture in multiethnic Kosovo), exhibition catalogue, National Museum of Posnan, Posnan 2011, p. 157, cat. 175, for a similar chain with a single row of virtually identiclal links.
Necklaces with coins in filigree frames with glass stones were also popular in Croatia. For illustration of a coin necklace worn as part of a Croatian costume from the Zadar region, see V. Salopek, 'Danses et Costumes de Yugoslavie', Zagreb 1987, p. 26.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2011 21 Jan-11 Sep, London, British Museum, Room 2, Traditional Jewellery and Dress from the Balkans
- Condition
- Good.
- Acquisition date
- 1995
- Acquisition notes
- Received via Hodgkinson's literary executor Mr Bejtullah Destani, the donor having always intended that the necklace go to a museum. It is said to have been collected by the anthropologist Miryam Tildsly in the 1930s, and given by her to the Hodgkinson. Both Tildsly and Hodgkinson were friends of Mary Edith Durham, the Balkan specialist.
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- Eu1995,10.1
