Enquiry about object: 10299
Moroccan Silver & Gilt Anklet (Khalkhal)
Meknes, Morocco dated 1300 AH (1883 AD)
diameter: 9.1cm, width: 5.6cm, weight: 236g
Provenance
Private Collection, London, UK.
This particularly fine anklet of cast and chiselled silver, with parcel gilding, is very much in the style associated with Meknes, an imperial city in northern Morocco. Typically, jewellery items of this quality were produced by local Jewish silversmiths.
It is hinged and opens with the removal of a pull pin which is attached by a thick silver chain to one of two gilded, serrated dome rivetted studs.
This style of anklet (with a Fes or Meknes assay mark) is illustrated in Rabate & Goldenberg (1999, p. 48) and again in Goldenberg (2014, p. 55), though the example here is finer.
The anklet here has a set of assay marks stamped on each of the halves of the interior of the anklet. The main assay mark is indistinct but probably is for the authorities in Meknes. The date stamp is clear – 1300 AH which approximates to 1883 AD.
The anklet is in excellent condition.
References
Goldenberg, A., Art and the Jews of Morocco, Somogy Editions, 2014.
Rabate, M., Bijoux du Maroc: Du Haut Atlas a la Vallee du Draa, ACR Edition, 2015.
Zniber, Z. & W. Meziou, Parures en or du Maroc: Histoire de Femmes, de Symboles et d’Amour, Editions Relet de Soi, 2023.
