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Rossini

74 - Qannuta element of a necklace known as al-haiathe, Northern …
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Estimate €600 - €800
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Description
Qannuta element of a necklace known as al-haiathe, Northern Morocco, probably Tétouan, 18th century Tubular gold element decorated with cloisonné polychrome enamels depicting plant motifs with four lobed leaves, a frieze of small filigree and openwork spheres on each side. Opens at both ends to form a case. H: 4.5 cm; PB. 16 g Minor damage to the enamel. This cylindrical piece, known as a qannuta from the Arabic qannût(a) / "portion of reed caught between two knots", probably by formal analogy, completed a neck ornament that has now disappeared. The type of necklace it formed, generally alternating with balls of filigreed gold or strings of small baroque pearls on either side of a central pendant, is based on a prototype known from 14th-15th-century Nasrid jewellery, as attested by the necklace from the Mondujar treasure at the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid (51033) or the dismantled set in the Metropolitan Museum in New York (17.190.161a-j). The immigration of Jewish goldsmiths from Spain to North Africa, mainly at the time of the Reconquista, enabled this transfer of models and techniques, including cloisonné enamel and filigree. The tubular shape of these beads, which can be dismantled like a small box, also demonstrates cultural continuity, in keeping with the tradition of talismanic boxes common to Jewish and Muslim cultures, and even to some ancient civilisations, which played a protective role thanks to the religious formulae they contained. In Nasrid and later Moroccan jewellery, this prophylactic role was abandoned in favour of a purely ornamental function. Few examples of Nasrid enamelled qannuta have survived. A piece in the Hispanic Society of America in New York (R3402) is attributed to Spanish work from the first quarter of the 16th century, and the qannuta in the MET necklace mentioned above are attributed to the late 15th or early 16th century. Later Moroccan pieces such as this one, which show a real assimilation of ancestral techniques, are more common. We could mention a qannuta from the Institut du Monde Arabe attributed to Tétouan in the eighteenth century, as well as two others on a necklace still complete in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (607:1, 2-1902). Bibliography GONZALEZ, Valérie, Emaux d'al-Andalus et du Maghreb, Edisud, Aix-en-Provence: 1994, pp. 128, 129, 180, 189, 190. RABATE Marie-Rose, GOLDENBERG, André, Bijoux du Maroc, Edisud, Aix-en-Provence: 1999, p.212.
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About the sale Classic furniture and objets d'art
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Auction time 06/18/2026 at 2:00 PM
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