Coin Necklace

 

Numerous prestigious objects, in addition to masks and statues, are reinforced and decorated with a layer of rutilating ceramic pearls. Of Venetian import for several centuries or of local manufacture, with glass of recovery, its symbolism is always the same: The works with pearls, glass beads or beads, as well as the bronze and ivory works, were reserved for the king and his court.

This technique gave rise to an art of great expressiveness and symbolism:

- The black, the colour of the night, evokes the relations between the world of the dead and that of the living.

- White, color of bones, refers to the world of ancestors.

- Red, associated with blood, symbolizes life, women and royalty in general.

These ceramic or glass pearls were an important barter element and are part of a historical period that begins from the century onwards. XVMany of these so-called cylindrical-structured pearls were made of glass paste and are called rosette pearls. Portuguese ships trade these pearls for gold, ivory, palm oil or slaves. For more than four centuries millions of beads were changed on the African continent. The last factory closed its doors in Murano, in 1964, leaving in their drawers more than 20.000 different samples of glass and ceramic beads intended for Africa.

This necklace consists of sixty-three mainly blue pearls of different shades with some yellow and brown pearls. Most of them are semi-spherical and five cylindrical.

These necklaces were spread throughout West Africa over several centuries.