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Anklet
Unknown - Enlarge image
Anklet
- Place of origin:
Morocco (possibly, made)
Algeria (possibly, made) - Date:
1800-1872 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Unknown (production)
- Materials and Techniques:
Silver and gilt
- Museum number:
1492-1873
- Gallery location:
In Storage
The 1851 Great Exhibition inspired a series of ‘London International Exhibitions’ which took place in South Kensington in 1871, 1872, 1873 and 1874. Fine arts and scientific inventions and discoveries remained central display themes but each exhibition presented different aspects of manufacture. In 1872 one emphasis was on jewellery, including ‘peasant jewellery’. The Exhibition Commissioners arranged with the South Kensington Museum (later V&A) to make a collection of peasant jewellery from ‘all parts of the world, which should become public property, for exhibition in the Museum after the close of the Exhibition’. A letter was sent by the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs to British representatives overseas asking for their help in securing pieces of jewellery, particularly examples with ‘a direct connection with the native instinctive art, which has been handed down by a long tradition’. The outcome was considered to be ‘most satisfactory … a collection of characteristic ornaments never before equalled was obtained’.
This anklet, originally one of a pair, is part of this collection. Described as ‘Moorish’ at the time, it is from North Africa, probably Algeria or Morocco. Called khalkhal (khul khal), such anklets were worn by women in urban areas.
