North Africa. Oman Yemen coin-silver rattle bracelet. Provenance

A fine Oman/Yemen coin-silver rattle bracelet (named zand, shilal or kharakash). These have little pebbles trapped inside to make sound with movement. Useful in dance, but sound also frightens evil spirits away - hence the eye motif in repousse found around the bracelet. It has the added function of warning a stranger that a woman approaches so that he may look elsewhere. These bracelets were made up to the 1950s in Rustaq, Oman, but were made elsewhere. Dates between 1850-1950. The wear on this example suggests a good age.

Similar examples can be found: p 183, Ransom, p 17 Rajab, p 118 Ghysels Collection and p 120 Al-Jadir.

Provenance: Ex. Romy Rey Collection.
Romy Rey (1938-2020) was born in Zurich, Switzerland. She trained as an artist in Paris and Geneva before settling in London in the early 1960s where she was a partner in two bookshops in Hampstead and Richmond. She shared her life with the artist, Brian Davies (1942-2014). The whole of her five-storey house in Richmond bustled with her “impeccably curated” collection of ethnographic art. Purchased at one of the disposal auctions

Dimensions;
11cm diameter (inner diameter 7cm ) x 2.5cm
Weight: 55gms

Condition: Worn but loved. From a good collection. W1117/8

References;
‘Silver Treasures from the land of Sheba, Regional Yemeni Jewelry’ - Marjorie Ransom, published by AUC Press, 2014.
‘Silver Jewellery of Oman’ Jehan S. Rajab, published by Tareq Rajab Museum, Kuwait,1998.
‘The Traditional Jewelry of Egypt’ - Azza Fahmy, published by AUC Press, 2015.
‘The Splendour of Ethnic Jewlry’ The Ghysels Collection, published by Thames and Hudson 1994
‘Arab and Islamic Silver’ Saad Al-Jadir published by Stacey International, London 1981