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 bracelet is part of this collection. Bracelets were part of traditional costume in most Islamic cultures, and were always originally worn in matching pairs. Many of those made in Egypt used heavy twisted wire, as in this example, and were mainly bought by the nomadic Bedouin women of the eastern desert. Bracelets of this design, which is the most typical and common of Egyptian twisted wire bracelets, have been made since the early 19th century, and are still being made today. They are easily identifiable, as they almost always carry full Egyptian marks in prescribed positions, if made of silver. They were widely worn in the region, and are found as far north as Syria, as well as in Egypt.