bracelet
- Museum number
- 2012,6010.5
- Description
-
Silver bracelet (banjiri bu shawkah/banagiri mushawwaka, literally 'spiked bracelet') with a single row of spiked bosses punctuated by vertical rows of four small round bosses. Made from sheet silver which was heated and hammered into a mould (die-stamped). The rims of the bracelet are decorated with rows of circles bordered with a rope-like pattern made from wirework. Style from Northern Oman, worn throughout the country and especially by women of the Interior (e.g. Nizwa, Sinaw and Rustaq).
- Production date
- 1950s
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 6 centimetres
-
Height: 2.70 centimetres
-
Weight: 42 grammes
- Curator's comments
- For similar examples see: Ruth Hawley, 'Silver: The Traditional Art of Oman' (London, 2000); Jehan S. Rajab, 'Silver Jewellery of Oman' (Kuwait, 1997); Neil Richardson and Marcia Dorr, 'The Craft Heritage of Oman' (Dubai, 2003).
According to Pauline Shelton, 'Bossed bracelets of one sort or another were worn throughout Oman and other parts of the Middle East, with only slight variations. Some believe that these were originally fertility bracelets, with the bosses representing breasts; it is also possible that they were, long ago, a development of the bracelet once worn by certain Arabian tribes, made of a strip of leather which was studded with rows of large, silver hemispherical domes and tied around the wrist...Bracelets with [spiky or rounded bosses] were made in one, two or three rows of bosses, the number apparently depending more on the region than on personal wealth or preference. In Sur, for example, bracelets always had spiked bosses (never rounded ones), and two rows of bosses were always worn - as they were among many bedouin tribes...In Interior towns such as Sinaw, Nizwa and Rustaq, however, both shapes of bosses were worn, but usually in a single row.' See Miranda Morris and Pauline Shelton, 'Oman Adorned: A Portrait in Silver' (Muscat, 1997), pp.111-112.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Fair
- Acquisition date
- 2012
- Acquisition notes
- This object is part of a collection of mid-20th-century silver items (2012,6010.1 ff.) acquired in Oman between 1984-1995. This collection was acquired in southern Oman in the markets of Salalah, Dhofar.
- Department
- Middle East
- Registration number
- 2012,6010.5
