The tubular shape of these earrings is based on the form of amulet holders typically worn by Turkmen women as pectoral ornaments. Such amulets were originally designed to hold scrolls of paper inscribed with holy words or verses from the Qur’an. These earrings evoke the shape of such amulets, though they are pierced and would not have held anything within.
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Artwork Details
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Title:Earring, One of a Pair
Date:late 19th–early 20th century
Geography:Attributed to present-day Uzbekistan, Bukhara
Medium:Silver filigree with applied silver gilt plaques, silver bells, and coral beads
Dimensions:H. 5 3/4 in. (14.6 cm) W. 4 in. (10.2 cm)
Classification:Jewelry
Credit Line:Gift of Marshall and Marilyn R. Wolf, 2013
Object Number:2013.968.7b
Three Pairs of Earrings (MMA 2009.530.4a, b, MMA 2009.530.10a, b, and MMA 2013.968.7a, b)
MMA 2009.530.4a, b, earrings consisting of flat spirals of wrapped and silver wire, are strikingly modern and sculptural. The ram’s-head elements identify them as Turkmen, although there is no consensus on the specific tribe they should be assigned to.
Earrings made in Central Asian workshops exhibit their own distinctive features but are also related to Turkmen types, illustrating that tribal and urban jewelry traditions borrowed from, and were mutually enriched by, each other. The circular shape of the earrings in no. 2009.530.10a, b, for example, is a typical feature of urban workshop production, as is their small scale and the use of carnelian and turquoise beads in combination. However, the circular shape was also used by Yomut craftsmen.[29] The tubular shape of the earrings in no. 2013.968.7a, b is related to the tumar amulet holders, such as MMA nos. 2005.433.9 and 2014.714.12 worn by Turkmen women as pectoral ornaments. Since amulet holders almost identical to these earrings were manufactured in Central Asian urban workshops,[30] it seems likely that the earrings were originally amulet holders and then transformed for a new use, or that they represent examples of a multipurpose form.
Layla S. Diba in [Diba 2011]
Footnotes:
29. Firouz, Iran Ala. Silver Ornaments of the Turkoman. Tehran, 1978, p. 35, fig. 46.
30. Kalter, Johannes, and Margareta Pavaloi, eds. Uzbekistan: Heirs to the Silk Road. New York, 1997, p. 301, figs. 602 and 603; Layla S. Diba. Turkmen Jewelry. 2011, fig. 25, page 32.
Marshall and Marilyn R. Wolf, Toronto, Canada (by 2006–13; gifted to MMA)
Diba, Layla S. "Silver Ornaments from the Marshall and Marilyn R. Wolf Collection." In Turkmen Jewelry. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2011. no. 39, pp. 80–81, ill. p. 81.
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