Berber Tribal Silver, old enamelled pendant. Old Moroccan Berber Tribal pieces are becoming increasingly difficult to source. There has been a market in France for items such as the above for many decades, indeed a shop opened in the early 1970s in the Marais, just across the Seine, offering very fine examples of old Berber Tribal Silver; the supply is, quite simply, now dwindling.
Berbers are peoples of the Maghreb, north-central and north-west Africa, pre-dating Ancient Roman times. Their cultural strongholds in Morocco tend to be concentrated in the Atlas Mountain Range, especially in the Anti Atlas, the southern arm of the range.
The above old pendant is enamelled in the basic ochre and green of most old Berber Silver-work, the plant-based colours of a time before the introduction of modern paints and colours.