Condition
Intact. Silvery weathering and incrustation.
Description
Vertical rectangular panel tapering toward the base; uneven flat back; straight sides (top missing); a large hole running horizontally through volute at bottom. Molded decoration on front: a series of two volutes appear on the preserved fragment; the entire bead quite probably comprised three volutes like cats. 509 and 510, each with a truncated pyramidal spike projecting out at the left; three pairs of wavy lines in relief run vertically down the volutes, with other, finer lines between spikes on left.
Comments and Comparanda
On Mycenaean beads, see cat. 526. For comparanda, see Wace, Alan J. B. 1921–1923. “Mycenae: The Tholos Tombs.” Annual of the British School at Athens 25: 292–316, 357–376., pp. 397–402, plate 25; Haevernick, Thea Elisabeth. [1960] 1981. “Beitrage zur Geschichte des antiken Glases Ill: Mykenisches Glas.” In Beiträge zur Glasforschung: Die wichtigsten Aufsätze von 1938 bis 1981, ed. Axel von Saldern, 71–83. Mainz: von Zabern. [Originally published in Jahrbuch des Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseums 7 (1960): 36–50.], pp. 74–75, fig. 5:1–2; Goldstein, Sidney M. 1979. Pre-Roman and Early Roman Glass in the Corning Museum of Glass. Corning, NY: Corning Museum of Glas., pp. 90–91, nos. 167, 168; Harden, Donald B. 1981. Catalogue of Greek and Roman Glass in the British Museum, vol. 1: Core- and Rod-Formed Vessels and Pendants and Mycenean Cast Objects. London: British Museum., pp. 43–44, no. 45; Wiener, Jana. 1983. “Glass Finds and Glassmaking in Mycenaean Greece: An Archaeological Study.” PhD diss., Tübingen University., pp. 25–30, 73–74; Spaer, Maud. 2001. Ancient Glass in the Israel Museum: Beads and Other Small Objects. Jerusalem: Israel Museum., p. 72, no. 39; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 25.78.22.
Provenance
By 1974–1988, Erwin Oppenländer, 1901–1988 (Waiblingen, Germany), by inheritance to his daughter, Ingrid Reisser, 1988; 1988–2004, Ingrid Reisser (Böblingen, Germany), sold to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 2004
Bibliography
Saldern von, Axel, Birgit Nolte, Peter La Baume, and Thea Elisabeth Haevernick. 1974. Gläser der Antike. Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer. Mainz: von Zabern., p. 91, no. 240.
Walton, M. S., A. Shortland, S. Kirk, and P. Degryse. 2009. “Evidence for the Trade of Mesopotamian and Egyptian Glass to Mycenaean Greece.” Journal of Archaeological Science 36, no. 7: 1496–1503..
Exhibitions
Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)