Ottoman Silver Filigree Waist Buckle & Silver Chains

This fine silver waist buckle and associated chains is very much in the Ottoman style. Ottoman empire rulers and warriors wore belts and elaborate, over-sized buckles as symbols of their power and rank. The fashion for such ostentatious belts was largely over by the mid-19th century.

The buckle is formed from three separate panels of fine, silver filigree curls within stiff silver borders and decorated with raised bosses and a central dramatic star motif.

It retains all the chains (which would allow the buckle to now be worn as a necklace). The chains have remarkably complex construction – the buckle would have been worn with most of the chains suspended from the buckle further adding to the decoration.

A related example of a buckle is illustrated in Borel (1994, p. 120).

The ensemble is of high-grade silver and in very fine condition.

We are unaware of other examples, published or otherwise, with such an array of attached silver chains, although the related example below which is part of the collection of, and is  on display in, the Monde des Arts de la Parure (Museum of the World of Adornment Arts) in Marrakesh, Morocco, has some attached chains.

 

Above: a related buckle with chain in the Monde des Arts de la Parure (Museum of the World of Adornment Arts) in Marrakesh, Morocco.