The shabka, kept and remade
Three families on the gold they inherited — and what they asked us to make from it.
In most Iraqi families the shabka does not stay in a drawer. It is worn at the engagement, worn again at every wedding after it, and one day handed down — often to a granddaughter who wants something of her own made from it.
This autumn three families brought their gold to Al-Mansour. Each asked the same question in a different way: how do we keep what it was, and still make it hers?
What we keep
We begin by weighing and photographing every piece, and by listening. One bride wanted her grandmother’s bangles left exactly as they were; another wanted the gold melted into a single, plain band. A third wanted the old stones reset and the clasp kept, because her mother had always fastened it for her.
“She wanted to feel the same weight on her wrist. Everything else could change.”
Bridal consultant, Al-Mansour
What we make
Where gold is remade, it is assayed and recorded so the family knows that every gram of the old piece is in the new one. Stones are checked and re-certified before they are set again.
The finished pieces go home in the same pouches they came in. The families tell us that matters more than the box.