Amuleto - Brasil Penca de Balangandã - Brasil

A large and substantial Penca de Balangandã, the emblematic charm-cluster amulet of Bahia, in the northeast of Brazil, where African, Indigenous and Portuguese cultures met. Worn at the waist by Afro-Brazilian women — enslaved and, later, freed — the penca was both a display of wealth held in wearable silver and a protective talisman tied to the Candomblé faith.
The piece is hallmarked PRATA 900 with the maker/assay mark 036 BA for Bahia. It is built around the characteristic nave: an openwork bar whose form recalls the hull of a ship, surmounted by two facing parrots amid foliage, symbolising the meeting of Africa and the Americas. From the toothed lower edge hang a full cluster of hand-raised and chased silver charms, each carrying meaning:
Pomegranate (romã) – fertility and prosperity
Bunch of grapes – associated with the orixá Oxum; abundance
Gourd and pot-form vessels (moringas) – the womb, water, sustenance
Pineapple / sugar-apple and textured fruit forms – protection and vitality
Carved wooden figa – the closed fist that wards off the evil eye, traditionally rendered in dark wood in deliberate contrast to the silver
The variety and number of charms, the quality of the repoussé and chasing, and the presence of the wood figa mark this as a serious decorative and collector's example rather than a light tourist piece. It retains an attractive, undisturbed patina and its original hanging chain.
Condition: Good, commensurate with age and use. Silver marked but not independently assayed. Patina left original (I recommend leaving it un-polished). Charms and chain intact and freely moving as shown. Please study all photographs, including the hallmark detail — they form part of the lot description.