Condition
Intact.
Description
Spacer-bead in the shape of a rectangular plaque. The ends are pierced by a transverse thread hole. The underside is glossy and concave; the upper side is decorated with a raised, stylized motif of two Argonauts placed back-to-back. The ribbed egg cases, or shells, cover the upper central part of the plaque. Three of the tentacles of each animal are presented, curved and extending to the ends of each side of the plaque; at the center of the plaque are the eyes.
Comments and Comparanda
On Mycenaean beads, see cat. 526.
Provenance
By 1974–1988, Erwin Oppenländer, 1901–1988 (Waiblingen, Germany), by inheritance to his son, Gert Oppenländer, 1988; 1988–2003, Gert Oppenländer (Waiblingen, Germany), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003
Bibliography
Saldern von, Axel, Birgit Nolte, Peter La Baume, and Thea Elisabeth Haevernick. 1974. Gläser der Antike. Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer. Mainz: von Zabern., pp. 91–92, no. 240; p. 91, plate no. 240.
Wight, Karol. 2011. Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum., pp. 16–17, 22–23, fig. 11.
Nightingale, Georg. 2018. “Glass of the Mycenaeans.” In Aspects of Late Bronze Age Glass in the Mediterranean: Proceedings of JIAA Late Bronze Age Glass Workshop Held at 27th–28th September, 2014, in Kaman, Turkey, ed. Julian Henderson and Kimiyoshi Matsumura, 30–60. Anatolian Archaeological Studies 21. Tokyo: Japanese Institute of Anatolian Archaeology., pp. 32–33, 36, 48, fig. 12, color plate 7.
Exhibitions
Molten Color: Glassmaking in Antiquity (Malibu, 2006; 2007)
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)