Gold Glass Tile
Gold Glass Tile
Period
Byzantine Empire
(Byzantine, 395 CE-1453 CE)
Place of Originprobably Syria, Byzantine Empire
Date9th-12th century
Dimensions3 1/4 × 3 1/2 × 1/4 in. (8.3 × 8.9 × 0.6 cm)
Mediumglass with gold leaf
ClassificationGlass
Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1959.127A
Not on View
DescriptionVery thick (0.56 cm) lower layer with pinprick bubbles; very thin (0.03 cm) upper layer.
Cruciform design.
Natural green tinted lower layer, decolorized upper layer with a slightly grayish-yellow tinge.
Gold leaf applied to lower layer and sandwiched between layers of glass. All edges chipped roughly to shape. Reddish-brown rough backing.
Flat, square.
Geometric design consisting of a large square cutout of gold foil at a diagonal to plaque. Inside the square is a symmetrical pattern of four pairs of isosceles triangles, one small, one large, whose long sides face the tips of the large square; the pattern centers on a small square in the center oriented in the same manner as the pattern square. Where the glass shows through the gold foil, the glass appears black because the backing inhibits the passage of light.
Published ReferencesPhilippe, Joseph, Le monde byzantin dans l'histoire de la verrerie, Bologna, 1970, p. 54.
about 9th-12th century
about 9th-12th century
19th or 20th century
Mid- to late 4th century CE
Perhaps 2nd century
Late first century BCE to early first century CE
about 1890-1900
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