Featured Tribal carving - ethnographic unknown

Your item is certainly native North African. It is Berber/Amazigh. The Tuareg are part of the larger Amazigh nation, they are the ones who fled deeper into the Sahara when the Arabs invaded North Africa.

The double gate symbol is called the 'gates of paradise'. It is seen a lot on Algerian jewellery.
The gates have typical horseshoe arches. Horseshoe arches are of Visigoth origin, and came to North Africa from Spain, which was Moorish for a while. The Visigoths were the Western Goths, a Germanic people that lived mostly in southwestern Europe.
After the Spanish 'Reconquista', many Spanish 'Moors' fled to Western North Africa, and hade a great influence on local culture.
In the North African sense Moors and Moorish mean a mix of Amazigh and Arab.

The item you found online has all the characteristics of a Tuareg item. The staggered outlines, coloured triangular details, and undecorated studs all scream Tuareg to me.
But the style of your item is different, a different outline, with a more traditional horseshoe shape of the arches, more ornate details, and northern metalwork. So it looks to me like it was made further north, by someone from another Amazigh group.

Not antique, but it is handmade, using some pre-made decorative elements.
The white decorations are likely camel bone. The metal is a brass-like base metal alloy, that is often used in North Africa. I have several Amazigh items of a similar rough-looking silvertone metal. Many people mistake it for low grade silver, which it isn't.

I agree. And the wood hasn't aged, underneath the staining it looks pretty new.

Traditional items are still made, both for local use and for export. That isn't faking, but continuing a tradition. I know I've said that many times before, but I can't stress that enough.
I see similar items in North African shops here in Europe. Amazigh craftspeople have to make a living, and I am glad that so many are able to do that by making traditional and tradition-inspired items.

 

More Islamic wooden windows, this time in Yemen, but very similar traditional construction:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ronnyreportage/6548234399/in/photostream/

Such architectural elements would become available for sale when the older buildings are torn down.

 

In Yemen those double gates are called Solomon and Sheba gates.
Yemen is the land of Sheba.

 

I'm going to offer a disagreement as to the brass and silver looking elements being mass produced.....I tend to enlarge images to get a GOOD look at details, as many others can and do here.....and I personally see too many differences to say "mass produced", but instead "hand worked"....maybe a rough template might have been used by the maker for the rough forms, but to ME, definitely hand worked! There are JUST TOO MANY differences on each piece!!

 

I concur...

plus....when was the last time anyone said Visigoths....???

 

I should clarify, and "mass produced" may have not been the best choice of words. I did not mean the pieces were churned out by European style machines. But they appear to have been made in multiples, either cast or stamped, which requires specially made molds and dies. They would have then been finished by hand, which would account for the variations.

My point was that they do not appear (to me) to have been made specifically for this object. I can envision a basket full of such fittings at the local market, which could be bought and applied to a variety of items.

On an older piece, I would expect the brass elements to be individually cut from sheet brass - which these do not appear to be.

 

Thanks so much Lark - for this information and your kind welcome- it does appear to have a broader cultural influence than I first imagined - my inner romanticist enjoys the ideal of it being a familial domestic artwork, however from the feedback I've gained it appears it's more likely a tourist piece purchased from a provincial market - it still holds a touch of romance ( in my mind / heart ) And no less valued than it is.

Not sure about whether it has been attached / inserted previously within a larger frame or door as there are holes (nail /size) on both the top and the bottom of the frame, which have been filled.

With appreciation & kind regards, Mark.

 

Hi Aquitaine, thanks so much for your response - I agree that it is hand worked, and artisan, I drew the same conclusion. The production of these adornments meant that during the production multiple decals were necessarily required and of course by the same embossing template / tool - I appreciate people have different interpretations of 'mass production' however mine sits within the parameters of machine made or any other form of mechanical commercial production. Neither of which I believe this to be. With appreciation & kind regards, Mark

 

Thanks you so very much for this wonderful insight and comprehensive setting (no pun, well a little ) as I mentioned in a previous post I am an Indigenous person of Australia (Dharug nation - Gundangurra clan) and as so I am entirely appreciative of your intelligence pertaining to the fact that authentic contemporary traditional items are no less culturally significant to the artists / or their peoples - as you would appreciate, historically, and in this context of true cultural art - Indigenous people do not have a word for, or place value, on time.

Waalawanni mudjin yiligah guluwah ('Djuwin': I see you friend, may your path always be safe and uplifting)

 

North Africa has a very long history of metalworking, on a par with Europe and the Middle East. The coastal areas in particular, have had a cultural exchange with the northern and eastern Mediterranean for thousands of years.

 

I did not mean to suggest that stamping and casting were unknown techniques - just that they were not what I have seen in this sort of context. But perhaps I am mistaken.

 

I'll try to say it a bit more.
Not sure it will always be relevant though.

 

next time I'm in your area.....I'll drop by for a visi - goth !!

 

There you go, it can be relevant, as long as we want it to be.