In the elaborate jewelry worn by North African women, a profusion of pendants, colored enamels and precious or semi-precious stones transform the pieces into flamboyant and conspicuous works of art. Women receive jewelry from their husbands when they marry, and they wear them as symbolic expressions of social codes and identity. In certain shapes and materials, jewelry is seen as a way to protect the wearer. The hand, or khamsa, is considered a potent shield against the evil eye.
In rural areas jewelry is generally made of silver and favors geometric form and decorations. Pieces crafted in urban settings and sometimes made of gold display floral, arabesque and rounded designs. Many jewelers in urban centers were descendants of Jews who fled Spanish persecution beginning in the 13th century. Itinerant jewelers worked in rural areas, where their techniques included casting, piercing, filigree work and enameling. Niello decoration lends a distinct black outline to patterns on silver jewelry. These techniques were inherited from Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Byzantine traditions.
Variations on a form, such as the hand, show how an object can be borrowed, reworked and altered to suit the needs of different wearers. The many regional styles of ornamentation in the Xavier Guerrand-Hermès Collection illustrate how jewelers shared and adapted techniques as they experimented with new materials, such as coins or synthetics, and discovered original ways to incorporate precious and rare older materials into traditional designs.