Featured Figural silver cold painted antique stick pin, colonial soldier?

Hi all!
This latest addition to my stick pins collection puzzles me...
Very detailed! Old, no marks, I can't find anything similar
Bought on French EBay, described as painted lead (not!) zouave head.
Total length: 9 cm.
Head only: 2,5 cm X 1,5 cm environ.
Weight : 4 grammes

 

Hi,
OOOOHooo I love that pin!!!!!!!!!!
greg

 

Had to look up Zouaves & Trailleurs. Maybe. But could just be in the tradition of blackamoor themes in jewellery. Someone made a brooch of this guy:

 

He is stunning, kyra, made by a true artist. Such great detail!
He reminds me of those Orientalist Bergman bronzes.

I don't think he is a Zouave, but a regular North African.
He isn't wearing a uniform. The front of his clothing, with that V-neckline, is too open for a Zouave uniform, and the folds at the back look like it could be part of the hood of a bournous.
The early Zouaves were Kabyle Berbers from northern Algeria, and this gentleman looks like he is from further south.
There was a group of North African soldiers, the Saphis, whose uniform included a bournous, but again, not a V-neckline. And as far as I know they wore turbans.

 

.

 

Very nice, @kyratango !

 

Nice!!
It looks like sterling to me.

 

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/1er_régiment_mixte_de_zouaves_et_tirailleurs

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tirailleurs_sénégalais

most probably a tirailleur sénégalais.

 

That is wonderful.

Debora

 

I was thinking Bergman as well. Lovely thing.

 

I see something like that, the go-to is usually Austrian cold-painted bronze, but I'm sure they didn't have a lock on it.

 

Can't help, but he is quite wonderful!

~Cheryl

 

Such wonderful detail on such a tiny little thing. Love it!

 

Thank you Greg! Me tooooo!

 

Ha Bronwen, thanks! This ivory guy is stunning!

 

Thanks. He's definitely not to everyone's taste but I was intrigued by the honesty of the portrait & the change from portraits of English & American gents.

 

@kyratango, he looks VERY MUCH like a sailor to me!!!! OLD for sure, but that's what I see!!!! LOVE HIM!!!

 

AJ! After some long time spent searching, I agree with you, he is a regular South of North Africa man, wearing a burnous and chechia! None of the uniforms of colonial indigen troups had blue chechia...

Thanks Figtree!

Absolutely, oxidized like silver, just a gentle wash and silvercloth show the true metal color.
Thank you stracci!

Thanks Fid, I explored those possibilities... No blue chechia in their uniforms and no burnous directly on the body, he is a regular North Africa native with black man features. South of North Africa

Thanks Debora! I had to have him...

Thank you OBB, it was my first thinking from the rather dark images of the listing, and the paint, but he is made of silver!

Thanks Mos! Thought that too, but he is not bronze, nor lead. Silver, cold painted!

Cheryl, , I have to agree!

Thank you sassafras! Even under a loupe, he is so lifelike!

 

I found him while searching which Subsaharian country could have Black people with arabian outfit!
Le Nubien "Nubian man" by Charles Cordier, sculptor.

Wikipedia, but in French...
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Nubien
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seïd_Enkess

 

Excellent! How wonderful that the model is not anonymous. From Wiki:

Plusieurs versions de ce buste sont produites dont une présentée à Londres lors de l'exposition internationale de Londres de 1851.

La reine Victoria en fait l'acquisition. You're in good company.