Braid Ornament thumbnail 1
Not on display

Braid Ornament

20th century (made)
Place of origin

A hair ornament made of twelve separate repoussé units soldered onto back plates which are threaded through pairs of soldered cylinders on the sides onto two strands of braided silver wire. The top unit is embossed with a five-headed cobra above the next unit with a scrolling pattern. The remaining ten units are of chevron shape tapering in decreasing sizes and are embossed with a stylised repoussé floral and foliated pattern. The uppermost unit has a long hook soldered on the back as a fixing into the wearer's hair and there is a ring on the lowest unit onto which are attached three domed ornaments with pendant balls (jhumka) also decorated with repoussé foliated floral patterns.

Object details

Category
Object type
Materials and techniques
silver, repoussage
Brief description
Silver braid ornament from Tamil Nadu
Physical description
A hair ornament made of twelve separate repoussé units soldered onto back plates which are threaded through pairs of soldered cylinders on the sides onto two strands of braided silver wire. The top unit is embossed with a five-headed cobra above the next unit with a scrolling pattern. The remaining ten units are of chevron shape tapering in decreasing sizes and are embossed with a stylised repoussé floral and foliated pattern. The uppermost unit has a long hook soldered on the back as a fixing into the wearer's hair and there is a ring on the lowest unit onto which are attached three domed ornaments with pendant balls (jhumka) also decorated with repoussé foliated floral patterns.
Dimensions
  • Weight: 243g
  • Length: 45cm
Credit line
Given by Dr W. Ganguly
Object history
This ornament is part of the large donation of Indian folk jewellery from Dr Waltraud Ganguly which was collected over the last few decades before her death in 2015 from dealers in both India and Europe, in parallel with extensive fieldwork she carried out in the Indian Sub-Continent. It was purchased from Amrapali in 2012 for 1100 Euros.
Collection
Accession number
IS.193-2019

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Record createdApril 29, 2015
Record URL
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