Naga or Mizo Bridal Headdress with Job’s Tear & Beetle Wing Strands

This exceptionally rare headdress was used by a bride, either a Naga bride or a bride from the nearby Mizoram region.

It comprises several rectangular brass plates joined to make an oval band to fit over the head. Two wooden horn-like protrusions come out from this at an angle and from each of these are many strands of Job’s tears seed pods (Coix lacryma-jobi) with fluorescent green beetle wing terminals.

From the base of the headdress are suspended four trapezoid brass panels suspended from native twine.

See a related example illustrated in Untracht (1997, p. 38) from the Mizo people of Mizoram.

This actual piece is illustrated in Jacobs (1990, p. 260) in which the headdress is described as being from ‘possibly one of the Manipur Naga tribes’ and being decorated with cowrie shells and beetle wings. In fact, the strands are not of cowrie shells but job’s tears, each of which terminates with beetle wings.

The headdress is in very fine condition, with no obvious losses.

It is from the collection of well known artist, printer and art publisher Hansjorg Mayer (b. 1943) who built up a large collection of Naga jewellery over a 50-year period, commencing in the early 1970s. Mayer’s works are to be found in the Tate Britain and other museums in Europe.