Hair ornament

The cross is a widely used form with numerous stylistic influences. The cross style of hair ornament is rumored to have originated from a late 18th-century pendant made for the wife of a Bamana king. Its form, however, also shows similarities to both the Coptic cross and the designs of nomadic Tuareg artisans, whose travel on Saharan trade routes along with salt, gold, and camels connected eastern, northern, and western Africa. When small ornaments in the shape of a cross (san u sébé) are worn in the hair, they are called trefle or argane, although some women prefer to wear them as pendants.

Gold-plated silver alloy, hollow, cross hair ornament with three circular arms and one trapezoid arm at the top, bisected by elongated rectangles and decorated with granulation. Flattened discs decorate the arms. There is a central, projecting tiered rosette at the center of the hair ornament and a small cylindrical and hollow suspension loop. Hammered flat back with losses and holes.

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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