Pendant

Originally subordinate to a larger central pendant, this beautiful filigree piece is one of the oldest in the collection and demonstrates the earlier mixture of gold and silver known as urus sasel.

Gold-plated silver alloy pendant of almond shaped undulating openwork filigree base, surmounted by a projecting flower and tiered rosette with globule. There are smaller rosettes at each point of the almond, and groups of three filigree leaves on the sides of the almond. Openwork triangular elements circumnavigate the pendant. Flower and rosettes are mounted on a hammered flat bar and disc of metal. Some of the gum arabic used to affix the top rosette to the bottom of the pendant is visible at the back of the pendant.

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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