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Catalogue

554. Mosaic Glass Pendant

Accession Number 76.AF.70.46
Dimensions L. 2.2, W. 0.8 cm; Wt. 0.91 g
Date First century BCE–first century CE; possibly second half of eighth–first half of ninth centuries CE
Production Area Egypt or Italy or Samara region (Russia)
Material Translucent purple and opaque white, red, yellow, and green glass
Modeling Technique and Decoration Fusion
View in Collection

Condition

Intact.

Description

Section of a cylindrical composite mosaic rod that was tooled to an elongated, diagonal shape; a hole was pierced through the upper part. The motif comprises a dark purple rod set in consecutive layers of glass in white, red, yellow, and green with yellow rods.

Comments and Comparanda

For the historical and technological evolution of glass inlays in Pharaonic Egypt and the Roman Empire, see cat. 449. The pendant could also belong to a much later production with parallels in the shape of mosaic beads from burials in Cheremshansky, Samara region, dated to the Khazarian period, in the second half of the eighth–first half of the ninth century CE; see , fig. 8.

Provenance

By 1976, Bruce McNall, donated to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1976

Bibliography

Unpublished

Exhibitions

None