FOUR CORE-FORMED FISH SHAPED GLASS BEADS
FOUR CORE-FORMED FISH SHAPED GLASS BEADS
The Augustinus Collection of Ancient Glass
(See below for details on the above beads)
–
Of the 7th. – 6th. Century B.C. Egypt, West Persia or Italy
↑ 4.6/3.7/3.9/4.9cm Ø body: 2.2 /1.8/2.0/1.9 cm
Ø Mouth: 0.6, 0.6, 0.6, 0.6 cm Ø Tail: 0.4, 0.3, 0.2, 0.3 cm
Technique: core-formed with different colors of glass: feathered in black, white, blue yellow and red; mouth and tail, or begin and end, circled with white opaque glass.
Description: Fish-shaped beads from a chain of beads; with longitudinal perforation, each with a wide opening as the mouth and a smaller opening on the opposite end, the tail; vertical opaque white lining on all openings; the rough surface imprint of the sand-core inside is well visible.
Condition: Complete but deeply weathered; some sandy encrustation; pitted surfaces.
Remarks: Belonging to a chain of sand-core beads or possibly used individually as runners for metal brooch fibulae, where the fish shaped body could have suited the use of a bronze brooch for the mouth- and tail opening are not of the same size.
Latter statement is a proposition where as most of the sand-core fibulae have bow-shaped forms to the brooches, as examples with Kisa, Haevernick, Grose and Goldstein show. The fish-shaped beads are unique in this size for no comparable examples have been found in literature so far.
Provenance: Most Likely from Egypt, Western Persia or Italy (Etruscan era). In a private dutch collection. First publication.
Reference:
Kisa,1906, Das Glas im Altertume, vol I, p 49, ill. 23.
Haevernick, 1959, Jahrbuch RGZM 6, 57-63. Zu den Glasbuegel Fibeln.
Nolte, 1968, Die Glasgefaesse im alten Aegypten, p 58-60. p176. pl XXVIII 59, 60.
pl XXIX 1, 2.
Von Saldern et al. 1974, no 106, p 48. Sammlung Erwin Oppenlaender.
Goldstein, 1979, Pre Roman and Early Roman glass, p 123, no 254, inv. 66.1.134/ 76.1.32
Von Saldern 1980, Ancient and Byzantine Glass from Sardis, no:833, p106, pl 19.
Bomford Collection, 1976, no 5, p 13.
Grose, 1989, Early Ancient Glass at the Toledo Museum.
- Bead 1A
- Bead 1B
- Bead 2A
- Bead 2B
- bead 3A
- Bead 3B
- Bead 4A
- Bead 4B
leave a comment