Ornaments

On Sulawesi, a chieftain goes into battle with a polished brass crescent at his brow. The serpent shape was meant to be noticed.

Antique ornaments for the body and hair include hairpins, hair picks, shield-form ornamental discs, pendants and toggles in bronze, brass, iron, shell, mother-of-pearl and turquoise. The sanggori of Central Sulawesi, worn on the forehead in ceremony and in battle, is one. Naga peoples of northeast India wore brass and shell discs as marks of status. Kasena women of Ghana and Burkina Faso wore carved pins, and pastoralists of the Omo Valley in Ethiopia used wooden picks to dress their hair. Ladakhi turquoise, Chinese silver hairpins and the cast ornaments of the Kotoko of Chad carry the same impulse in different metals.

Worn smooth by hands and hair, they catch the glint of old metal and shell on a lacquered tray.

Vanity is very old, and very well made.