Fibula (garment fastener or brooch)

Place of OriginEtruria, from Italy

Date7th century BCE

DimensionsL (pin): 3 3/8 in. (8.6 cm); L (glass from end to end): 1 7/8 in. (4.8 cm); L (bone from end to end): 7/32 in. (.7 cm)

MediumRod-formed runner; applied marvered threads

ClassificationJewelry

Credit LineGift of Robert F. Reichert

Object number

1986.82

Not on View

DescriptionBronze, glass, and bone fibula with bronze triple-coil spring, pointed pin, concave catch-plate, and arching bow. Bow decorated with a rod-formed, leech-shaped glass runner in a dark brown ground (appearing black), with six longitudinal panels of marvered opaque yellow festoons. A longitudinal threadhole at the center, its inner surface coated with a fine gray separating agent. A carved conical section of bone is attached at the end of the runner above the catch-plate.

Published ReferencesGrose, David F., Early Ancient Glass: Core-formed, Rod-Formed, and Cast Vessels and Objects from the Late Bronze Age to the Early Roman Empire, 1600 B.c. to A.d. 50, New York, Hudson Hills Press in association with the Toledo Museum of Art, 1989, cat. no. 36, p. 87, repr. (col.) p. 70.