Decorated PVC bracelets are worn throughout a vast region which includes the Donguena, Evale, Hakawama, Himba, Humbe, Kwanyama, Mukubal, Mwila, Ndimba, Ngambwe, Ovambo and Zemba of Southern Angola - and east into various Botswana and Zambian tribes.

                     Ndimba girls selling anklets and fertility dolls.                                         Complements - Neil Munro - 2006

Unlike most, the Hakawana, Mwila, Ndimba, Ngambwe and Zemba all share a common use of  wider examples worn as anklets. These are worn singularly or in pairs. Finely detailed designs are cut into the PVC while in flat sheet form. Each design and pattern is surprisingly unique to any other. Once completed, ochre, soot or even paint is added for color, then heat  applied to shape it round.

Below you will find three views of each single anklet or pair we are able to offer. 

Click the thumbs for higher resolution photographs.

Item A

Item B

Item C

Item D

Item E

Item F

Item G

 

Brass examples generally pre-date PVC.

 

 

Jose Redinha - Angola

 

Brass examples were recorded by Redinha in 1930's publications. Their sharp edges often cut into the leg and they could became very hot in the sun, resulting in blisters. As a result, fabric or paper was often placed between the object and the wearer's leg. 

 

Brass became less popular with the advent of PVC material. PVC was lightweight, far softer and did not absorb infrared light or heat. Additional colors were easily added to white PVC, which yellowed like ivory with age. The softness of PVC allowed the artist to achieve far more complicated engraved designs. Today, brass examples are seldom seen.

 

 

Kaffrairian Museum - King Williams Town - South Africa

 

Angolans share a widespread artistic talent for detail. In earlier times, their medium of choice was a calabash. Whether an item was meant to be a milk or beer container, a cup or bowl, or even a thumb piano, if made from a calabash - it was likely decorated. Carved drawings were made onto the surface, chronicling past life like no-where else in Africa.

 

 

Dr. Alfred Schachtzabel - Im Hochland Von Angola  - and others.

 

Dr. Alfred Schachtzabel  - Calabash Scenes

 

Southern Angolan anklets are a continuation of an age old traditional art form. Dr. Alfred Schachtzabel traveled to Angola for the first time during 1913 and 1914. There he researched and collected artifacts for the Museum of Ethnology in Berlin. Instantly his sensitive appreciation for detailed Angolan calabash art was born. Drawings of masterworks he came across and or collected, were reproduced in both his and other publications.

 

Click the image above and zoom in to better view his recorded Angolan art form.

 

Click the thumbs below for higher resolution photographs.

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This bracelet is decorated with miniature cowries, which represent wealth and power.

 

Click the thumbs for higher resolution photographs.

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This set of four bracelets are sold as one.

 

The images that follow were taken by Neil Munro in 2006 and included anklets worn by the Hakawana and Zemba peoples. All three women wear a multitude of multi colored bracelets.

 

     

 

     

 

     

 

Blue and Ivory colored PVC are popular with the mentioned tribes in the region.

 

 

The Himba make and decorate larger belts from PVC in the same way as anklets.

 

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The openings were so small that sometimes a knife or razor edge had to be used to extract the note. This tight construction was intended to help prevent theft of the notes.

Click Thumbnails for Larger Images

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Men who worked in the mines or cities gave these to their wives as gifts on their return home. As a result, these highly prized objects of adornment displayed status.

 

 

Click Thumbnails for Larger Images

 

The Thembu - Xhosa and Mfengu all owned related leather purses. Our examples are Thembu. Depending on who you ask - singular or plural - they were called Isipaji - Izipaji - Imphuthamphutha and Isipaji-saseMaiMai

 

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Our example is particularly old and the iron beads are extremely worn.

Himba women wore anklets until death. Nowadays Himba anklets are taken apart for their beads, which are then strung into necklaces and sold to tourists.

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A very fine and rare matched pair.

Another

Click thumbs to view detailed images.

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Another matched pair made from Brass

 

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This anklet was worn by Frafra women in Burkina Faso.

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                                   Example A                                                                   Example B

Ethiopian crosses have their origin in the Coptic Church, "the Christian church of Egypt", established by Mark in the first century. Over time, Copic teachings spread to Ethiopia, where the representation of the cross further developed. Ethiopian crosses can be so sophisticated that sometimes it is difficult to find the cross in the design! Stylistically, personalized names were given according to the region or towns they were made in, such as Axum, Lalibela, or Gondar.

                                            Maria Theresa            Coptic Cross      Austro Hungarian Thaler

Ethiopian crosses collected during the last 100 years or more were generally hammered from Maria Theresa silver thalers (dollars). These silver coins were the currency of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Maria Theresa was the empress from 1740 to 1780. In fact, the Maria Theresa thaler served as a trade dollar world wide for 100's of  years. Initially minted in 1782, it is still used today in some places. Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Yemen, Turkey, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Niger, and Chad, are only a beginning list of the countries that have used or still use the Maria Theresa. It was also used in early America.
 

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We don't know where this bracelet was made.  Someone suggest Tibet.

It has age, is hammered overall and made in two sections so as to achieve a hollowed section.

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Most of the seven strings of trade beads on offer date to 19th century Venice, though the brass examples with cosmological symbols were made by the Baule of the Ivory coast. Carnelian beads were made in Bohemia, India and the Sahara. This group is offered as "a collection".

Chevron Necklace

This rare 4 - 6 layered Chevron necklace of 28 beads has a circumference of 34 cms, or + - 13 inches. The largest bead (center) has a 7.5 cm circumference, or + - 3 inches.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chevron Beads are special glass beads, originally made for trade in the New World and the slave trade in Africa by glassmakers in Italy as far back as the early 15th century. They are composed of many consecutive layers of colored glass. The initial core is formed in a star-shaped mold, and can have anywhere between five and fifteen points. The next layer of glass conforms to that star shape. Several layers of glass can be applied (typically four to seven layers), either star-shaped or smooth. After all layers have been applied, the glass is drawn out to the desired thickness and when cooled, cut into short segments showing the resulting star pattern at their ends. The ends can be ground to display the chevron pattern. Chevron beads are traditionally composed of red, blue, and white layers, but modern chevrons can be found in any color combination. Original beads made for trade to the New World and Africa were typically composed of green, white, blue and red layers.

Chevron beads are a specific, historically important type of trade bead. Africa was not the only outlet for these beads. As far back as Christopher Columbus' expeditions, these beads were traded to Native Americans for goods and slaves.

Chevron beads are very popular collectors' items and they are still highly valued in present day West Africa, where they continue to be worn for prestige and ceremonial purposes, and occasionally buried with the dead.
 

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