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Head Pendant - Demon Mask

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Head Pendant - Demon Mask

Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, probably Phoenicia or Carthaginian
DateLate seventh through fifth centuries BCE
DimensionsL: 1 in. (2.6 cm); W: 7/8 in. (2.2 cm); D: 7/16 in. (1.1 cm)
MediumRod-formed; tooled and applied features and suspension ring
ClassificationJewelry
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1923.354A
Not on View
DescriptionThis small pendant is shaped as a stylized demon mask. Made of rod-formed glass, it features a dark ground (appearing black) with applied and tooled decorative elements. A vertical blue suspension ring and ears frame the head. The facial features include opaque yellow eyebrows and beard, a blue nose, and opaque white circular eyes with opaque blue centers. The pendant has a roughly triangular shape.
Published ReferencesGrose, David F., "Ancient Glass," TMA Museum News 20, no. 3, 1978, p. 72, fig. 6.

Seefried, Monique, Les pendentifs en verre sur noyau des pays de la Mediterranee antique, Collection de l'Ecole Francaise de Rome, no. 57, Rome, 1982, pp. 77, no. A 27.

Grose, 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. 37, p. 88, repr. (col.) p. 71.

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