Replacing earlier crosses of wood and other metals, silver pendant crosses have been worn in Ethiopia since the 15th century as professions of the Christian faith. The preferred source of the silver was the thaler, an 18th-century coin of the Austrian empress Maria Theresa, imported in large numbers in the 19th century.
Provenance:
Mr. and Mrs. Donald F. Miller, Alexandria, Virginia, acquired Addis Ababa, 1971
Published References:
Robbins, Warren M. and Nancy Ingram Nooter. 1989. African Art in American Collections. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, p. 510, no. 1329.
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