Bracelet

Bracelets were essential to a woman’s collection, and a simple version was often a Wolof woman’s first acquisition. Like necklaces and earrings, bracelets come in a wide variety of inventive styles, from the braided and twisted designs, which required the female client’s presence to designate the tightness of the twist, to delicate, European-inspired flowers, to Islamic-inspired half-moon bracelets.

Gold-plated silver alloy C-form bracelet composed of five hexagons, three of which have a central star cutout, all of which have applied rows of twisted wire and twisted wire circles. The hexagons are bisected by oval or almond-shaped elements with twisted wire S shapes applied at the center.

Marian Johnson, purchased in Dakar, Senegal, 1963-late 20th century to 2012

Good As Gold: Fashioning Senegalese Women, National Museum of African Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., October 24, 2018-February 2, 2020; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, September 16, 2020-January 3, 2021

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