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