FEZ, 18TH CENTURY

The lebba was a very important part of a Moroccan bride's adornment. The motif of the rarnati, or pomegranate is a recurrent motif in Moroccan urban jewellery of the period. Here, each of the pendants are composed of inverted rarnati (pomegranates, conceived in the form of a lily), encrusted with gemstones which sparkle like ripe seeds. The associations of the pomegranate with fertility and plenty are well-known; furthermore, the juice of the pomegranate was also said to protect against the evil eye. Similar lebbas are known composed either of nine or seven pendants. A very similar example to the present was in the Benyaminoff Collection, exhibited at the Israel Museum and then sold at Sotheby's, 17 October 1997, lot 52 (Rachel Hasson, Later Islamic Jewellery, Jerusalem, 1987, pp.62-3, no.79). In the catalogue note to that lot, it is said that a similar necklace was in the collection of Madame Elsa Schiaparelli, one of the most famous avant-garde fashion designers of the first half of the 20th century, where it was published in American Vogue, 15 August 1941. Other published examples are less ornate, such as two in private collections (Khireddine Mourad, Francis Ramirez and Christian Rolot, Arts et Traditions du Maroc, Courbevoie (Paris), 1998, p. 159; and Maroc, les tresors du royaume, exhibition catalogue, Paris, 1999, no.325, p.187). A very similar example sold in these Rooms, 17 April 2007, lot 324.