Bracelet

This bracelet style, popular in the 1920s, was inspired by Roman gladiators’ wristbands. This particular cuff, however, was made in the 1940s or ’50s, when the style resurfaced in support of Lamine Guèye, a politician who supported women’s suffrage. He was, therefore, extremely popular among Senegalese ladies—a gladiator who fought for the rights of women.

Gold alloy (possibly wash on copper; gold content could be very low) wrist-guard bracelet composed of two large convex trapezoidal panels and two rectangular panels and chain link mesh with applied vertical rows of rosettes. The panels are composed of filigree and flattened applied diamonds, discs, almond shapes and S curves. The two back panels are similar, but flat instead of convex, and rectangular instead of trapezoidal. An extra vertical bar may or may not belong to this bracelet. Hinge pin closure.

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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