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 alloy (gold-toned alloy) contemporary filigree C-form bracelet with two highly stylized peacocks at the center composed of plain, hammered flat metal heads and bodies with small projecting circular eyes and openwork simple filigree tails. The rest of the cuff is the same simple openwork filigree. The entire bracelet is lined in a solid metal band.

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

Maples, Amanda, Ashby Johnson, Marian, and Dumouchelle, Kevin D., 2018, Good As Gold, Washington, D.C.: NMAfA, Smithsonian, p. 81, illustrated p. 82

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