Rings

A horseman in bronze, no bigger than a thumbnail, riding a merchant’s finger. Tribal rings are cast, forged and hammered in bronze, brass and silver. Lost-wax bronze rings from Djenne and the Dogon of Mali carry horses and riders, figures and animals; Lobi and Gan rings come from Burkina Faso, Tuareg silver rings have engraved bezels, and Berber silver, Naga brass and the saddle rings of Tibet and Nepal, set with coral and turquoise, round out the range. In Djenne, where horses had to be imported at great expense from the Arab world, a ring with a horseman marked a merchant elite.

Heavy and worn smooth, they are sculpture in miniature. Line a few up on a windowsill and let the bronze take the light.