Inventory no.: 4379

Chased Silver Pendant with Hand of Fatimah, Marrakech, Morocco, dated 1338 AH (1917)

SOLD

Chased Silver Pendant with Hand of Fatimah

Marrakech, Morocco

dated 1338 AH (1917)

height: 13cm, width: 7cm, weight: 46g

This pendant of solid sheet silver has been engraved with arabesques and other foliate motifs. The central section has a suspended Hand of Fatima. Such a pendant was worn as a talismanic device to ward away evil and bad luck, and is a motif employed in many places in Morocco – on doors, as a motif on pottery and textiles, and so on.

This example would have been produced in Marrakech and is dated to 1338 AH which approximates to 1917 AD. It is also impressed on the reverse with what is probably the maker’s mark.

Examples are illustrated in Mourad

et al (1998, p. 162), Boele (2005, 132), Grammet & de Meersman (1998, p. 309), and Rabate & Goldenberg (1999, p. 185).

The pendant is stable and wearable. It has an age-related patina and what might be an old repair at the bottom-left corner.

References

Boele, V. (ed.), Morocco: 5000 Years of Culture, Kit Publishers/Lund Humphries, 2005.

Grammet, I., & M. de Meersman (eds.),

Splendeurs du Maroc, Musee Royal de l’Afrique Centrale, 1998.

Mourad, K., F. Ramirez & C. Rolot,

Arts et Traditions du Maroc, ACR Edition, 1998.

Rabate, M., & A. Goldenberg,

Bijoux du Maroc, Edisud, 1999.

Provenance

UK art market

Inventory no.: 4379

SOLD

here