Old Yemen Silver Coin and Beads on Goat Hide Leather Headband
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Silver headbands were a common accessory worn by Yemeni women in the early 1900s. The methods of making the complex forms and links that made a silver piece flexible and soft enough to be worn across the forehead for a long time are no longer practiced widely in Yemen. The Jewish silversmiths who made those intricately woven silver accessories emigrated to Israel in the early 1900s.
Since that time, individual pieces of silver such as the coins and granulated bell-shaped beads, adorned with matching rose coral beads could be assembled from the remains of the older pieces and re-used as in this headband.
It is one of a kind, original, authentic Yemeni folk art and is beautiful in its balance, comfortable because of the soft goat leather and is complete, just as the maker put it together.
It appears to have simply been tied around the head, since the ends are very tapered, but no holes have been punched as if a needle had sewn it together.
The large coin is the Maria Theresa thaler, a major source for silver jewelry making in the 19th and early 20th century in Yemen. The face of the monarch, Maria Theresa, is turned to the back, and hidden by the leather backing. It was once furnished with a bail for hanging; the bail is decorated with a charming granulated rosette.
The other coins are Yemeni, and I cannot see the date on them, but they no doubt precede considerably the fabrication of this piece, as would the 1798 date on most Maria Theresa thalers!
The coral is closely matched in size and color and is obviously old Mediterranean real, natural rose coral.
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26 inches long. $320.00 U.S.
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