A NEAR PAIR OF SIGNED TUAREG DARK WOOD AND SILVER BANGLES
Northern Mali or Mauritania, Africa, 20th century

Each C-shaped bangle with an inward-curving profile, the carved dark wood body mounted with incised, engraved and openwork silver sheet, the central rectangular cartouche decorated with geometric motifs including cut-out concentric diamonds in the middle, issuing pairs of circles and triangular patterns, all encased within incised fretwork bands, the terminals decorated with more geometric motifs, mostly repeating triangles filled with repeating hatched lines and a beaded band of small circles on the upper section, the silver sheet on the inside of each bangle engraved with a quadripartite square tribal mark next to a Tuareg Tifinagh inscription reading 'HDN', possibly the maker's name, only visible to the wearer.

Each 7cm x 7.5cm

Total 78gr.

For a very similar pair: Rachel Hasson, Later Islamic Jewellery, 1987, p. 77, cat. 104; and Wolfgang Creyaufmüller, Nomadenkultur in der Westsahara: die materielle Kultur der Mauren, ihre handwerklichen Techniken und ornamentalen Grundstrukturen, 1983, p. 554, nos. 506 – 07.