Featured French Penannular Brooch Silver & Gold

Following the lead, I see others of similar shape/design. Do you know what is inside the cartouches?

 

Looks like the Tunisian 'bunch of grapes' mark. The cartouche is shaped like a violin, which means .900.
The 'bunch of grapes' mark is for larger articles, but I don't know what size or weight it starts at. My Tunisian jewellery is generally marked with the 'Moor's head', for smaller articles.

 

Thank you.

 

My God Berbers are a beautiful people.

 

Yes they are. We have many here, and many have that same soft-skinned look the lady has. There is another, more thin, gaunt type. Almost like they are two peoples living side by side.

One of my good friends was Moroccan Berber with some Chinese mixed in, she looked like a Dutch-Indonesian girl. Many moons ago Samira's Chinese sailor grandfather saw her beautiful Berber grandmother and decided to stay in Casablanca.

 

Thank you both for your explanations and the picture.

 

I bought this at Batavian's Antiques in Boston in 1968. It's 5 1/2" long. I know they came in pairs and were used as Any Jewelry shows in that photo. Long ago it was turned into a pendant. The colors are a bit darker than shown in my photo.

 

Beautiful, Bev. It is Moroccan, with that prominent green and yellow, guesstimate early 20th century. There is a region where this style enamelwork is made, but can't think of the name right now.
These are quite pricey nowadays, be careful you don't knock it into something.

There could have been a connecting silver chain between the two fibulae, like this example from the Berber Museum in the Jardin Majorelle in Marrakech:

 

Wow, I’ve been busy away with work since yesterday, so many wonderful responses!
Thankyou for showing your similar ones @Bronwen and @Any Jewelry , great to see them

I wonder if the second mark on mine is the Mercury head too? It’s so tiny I need to crack open the microscope!

 

You can't turn your back for a minute on Antiquers.

 

Its like they think they're in the olympics or something

UGH what a reason to avoid Egyptian jewelry then! I've got a hard enough time being in France hahaha

Anyway, beautiful pieces all of you, and its been quite the enjoyable read over a cup of tea!

 

Just send it to me, a loving home for stray jewellery of any origin.

 

great link AJ, thank-you for posting it

 

Provençal was the key search term. Thankyou AJ, that gave me lots of hits.

 

Such beautiful items and also very informative discussion! Not that I have a chance of finding anything alike (here it is predominantly Czech glass and USSR amber) but it is very interesting to read about different cultures, styles and habits. Thank you all!