This silver fibula would have been worn by a woman in the Aurès region of Algeria in the nineteenth century. Silver was a very popular material for jewellery as it was seen as a symbol of purity and honesty and Berber communities preferred it to gold which they regarded as a sign of vice. Here, the silver is engraved and pierced and outlined with scrolls. The small hole at the top would have held a chain linking this pin to its pair. They were worn on the front of the body, just below the shoulders, to hold the wearer’s dress together.

This brooch was probably made by a Jewish silversmith. In the late fifteenth century many Jewish people immigrated to North Africa to escape persecution in Europe. The Jewish population dominated the silversmith profession until well into the twentieth century as Berbers regarded working with metal as a low status profession.