Bridal crown made from strips of silver with silver 4 annas coins at intersections. [JMC 12/12/2018]

Collection type: Object
Description: Bridal crown made from strips of silver with silver 4 annas coins at intersections. [JMC 12/12/2018]
Long description: Bridal crown made from strips of silver with silver 4 annas coins at intersections. The main part of the crown is formed of one strip for the rim, two intersecting longer strips and three further strips to reinforce the front. At four points around the rim, three strips extend up, terminating in coins. [JMC 12/12/2018]
Geographical reference: India
Asia > Southern Asia > India; Odisha
Cultural groups: Khond
Person: Maker Unknown Maker; Field collector Honor E. C. Wilkins; PRM source Robert G Wilkins
Date / Period: Date made: 1945-1951
Date collected: 1951
Acquisition information: Donated: 21/03/2018
Materials and processes: Material Silver Metal, Process Hammered, Process Struck
Dimensions: Height: max 155 mm, Width: max 168 mm, Length: max 185 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 2018.110.1
Research and responses: The coins all date to between 1940 and 1945, therefore the crown was made no earlier than 1945. [JMC 12/12/2018]
The crown was given to the donor's mother, Honor Wilkins, in 1951 while she and his father Dr. Eric Gordon Wilkins were living in Odisha. They had been sent by the Baptist Missionary Society in 1936 to help build the Moorshead Memorial Hospital. See E. G. Wilkins autobiography 'By Hands, Bullocks and Prayers: The Building of the Moorshead Memorial Hospital, Kond Hills, India.' The crown is mentioned on page 202: "At various farewell gatherings speeches were made and special songs, composed for the occasion, were sung. The Kui people gave me a set of four Kui hunting axes and some arrows. Honor was given a scarlet bridal sari and silver head-dress. For the boys there were wooden models of a plough, an earth leveller and clapper birds, used both in play and in Kond sacrifices. The most precious gift was of heir-loom bronze models, usually kept in the special sacred place in a Kond house; an elephant, a bull and two birds. These are made by the 'lost wax' process..." [JMC 12/12/2018]

Search terms: Ornament, Clothing Headgear, Currency, Marriage, Head Ornament, Headdress, Coin

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