Featured Silver inlaid wooden beads- Mali?

Please can anyone help to identify these beads? @Any Jewelry
They are c1cm and the inlay is silver. Very intricate design.
Google is suggesting ebony and Mali amongst many other possibilities!
Thanks for looking

 

I'd have said Indian, bwdik. @Any Jewelry ?

 

A lot!

 

I would say Mauritania, inlaid ebony, with another wood for the central band.

True.

 

Bingo!
Smithsonian Museum of African Art described as Mauritanian.
Thankyou

 

Not the same, but a similar style:


https://www.thebeadchest.com/products/mauritanian-inlaid-ebony-wood-bicone-beads-34x20mm

They say they are Mauritanian made, but bought in Western Mali. There has always been a lot of trade in the Sahara region (Tuareg).

 

Perfect! You beat me to it, with a much better example.

 

With that one elongated bead, I wonder if it could have come from a tesbih or tasbeh, a string of prayer beads.

 

Would they likely have been strung on wire like these examples? How would the elongated bead be included- I was wondering about that odd man out!

 

Different shape, but something like this:

https://www.etsy.com/listing/675049981/33-black-french-cross-silver-inlaid-oval?ga_order=most_relevant&ga_search_type=all&ga_view_type=gallery&ga_search_query=inlaid+wood+tasbih&ref=sc_gallery-1-4&plkey=89af8d268f0e6dd7c5062f3d376d9746f0ffa9dc:675049981

Your beads are much older though, and more valuable.
The odd man out could also have been a focal bead on a necklace, like the round one on necklace 2 in your last post #9.
Gorgeous stuff.

 

As in how old do you think? I am clueless!
I paid £10 for them and honestly thought I’d gone mad as you know anything over a fiver is serious money for me However the intrigue of finding out what they were outweighed my reluctance to open my purse. I bought them at a weekly antiques fair from a lady who prices everything, then studies what you want to buy with a loupe, whispers with her husband and often ups her prices so I’m surprised if I got one past her!!

 

I am sort of clueless too, don't know too much about them, but would guess at least 1960, but could be older.
What does the Smithsonian say about theirs?
If they don't have any info, maybe ask the French 'Musée du quai Branly', an ethnographic museum with a nice collection from former French West Africa.

 

Contact info should be somewhere on this page:
https://www.quaibranly.fr/en/lets-stay-in-touch/contact/

 

I had a similar necklace and got lots of help on the boards. Let me see if I can find the thread. In the mean time, here is a photo...

My brain is nudging me to say mine came from West Africa, I think also Mauritanian...

Here is the thread, probably doesn't tell you anything you didn't read here already:
https://www.antiquers.com/threads/help-with-silver-and-black-beads-necklace.29051/#post-384716

 

Ooh, that is gorgeous @Marie Forjan ! Much nicer than my beads. I’ll have to dig out some pins to make them into a something but I don’t think I have enough to do a necklace so it may be a bracelet!

Somewhat vague.
Acquired c1962 in Somali.

 

Marie, I totally forgot about your beautiful necklace. Old age, Covid isolation, brain damage, and a lot of other excuses I can't think of right now because of old age, and erm...

 

I am intrigued as to how they make them as the inlay is so small and delicate

 

They make the shapes in silver wire, much like filigree, and then hammer them into the wood.

 

That must take some skill and good eyesight!