537. Mosaic Bead

Condition

Reconstructed.

Description

A spherical bead made of composite mosaic canes, with florets arranged in two rows and ca. five columns. These slices were fused together as a flat mass and were subsequently folded around a rod and rolled. The seam of this folding is still visible along the edge of the hole in the bead. Each floret consists of 9 × 9 micro-tesserae in which a central yellow square tessera is surrounded by red, white, “black,” and white angular lozenges, which form a checkerboard pattern.

Comments and Comparanda

Mosaic glass beads with checker pattern placed at the greatest diameter of the bead, in rhomboid position, appear in early Roman (mainly first century CE) graves, for example in Meroë (Dunham 1957, p. 122, fig. 80, no. 21-3-57a; pp. 130–131, fig. 86, no. 23-2-79c; pp. 135–136, fig. 89, no. 21-12-129b-9), Egypt (Fitzwilliam 1978, pp. 28–29, nos. 46a, b, c), Poland and Germany (Tempelmann-Maczynska 1985, pp. 59–60, type 364, with a band of rhomboids, type 368 in a carpet pattern), and on the Black Sea coast (Alekseeva 1982, pp. 36, 40, color plate 49, nos. 67–87, graves of the first–second centuries). They also appear in third-century graves in Denmark and Norway (Stout 1985, pp. 32–37). Most are globular and a few are barrel-shaped or flat. Checker patterns most often appear as multicolored diamonds. For mosaic beads with female faces on them, see comments on cat. 534 and 535.

Provenance

Pierre Mavrogordato, Greek, 1870–1948; 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

von Saldern et al. 1974, p. 84, no. 234.

Exhibitions

Gläser der Antike: Sammlung Erwin Oppenländer (Hamburg and Cologne, 1974–1975)