Earrings

Earrings, particularly twisted gold hoops ubiquitous throughout western Africa since the first millenium AD, are an essential component of any Senegalese jewelry ensemble. Often paired with a matching pendant or necklace, the more ornate patterns reflect their European inspirations, incorporating delicate filigree work and crested with flowers and circlets of twisted wire design. These designs often bore French names, or French derivatives. Dangling versions, sometimes modeled after common necklace designs, are also popular and are known as "long-longs." Others are small hoops composed of coiled or twisted wire meant to be attached permanently to the ear and worn in multiples.

These earrings are a very traditional Senegalese design of tiered flowers composed of coiled and twisted wires and tiny flowers. The reddish tone betrays the high copper content, a color more widely desired amongst the Wolof, so the earrings may be Wolof instead of Tukulor.

Pair of gold (probably gold alloy with a large copper content) earrings in the form of tiered rosettes composed of smaller florettes surmounted by openwork petals and a large globule, applied to hammered sheet metal with an attachment of fish hook wires for wearing in the ear.

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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