Composite "Eye" Bead

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Composite "Eye" Bead

Place of OriginChina

DateWarring States Period (about 475–221 BCE)

DimensionsL: 7/8 in. (2.2 cm); Diam: 7/8 in. (2.2 cm); Bore Diam: 7/16 in.(1.1 cm)

MediumGlass

ClassificationGlass

Credit LineGeorge E. Pomeroy Bequest Fund

Object number

1948.81

Not on View

DescriptionThis bead features a translucent dark blue glass body, decorated with inlaid, stratified "oblate" or "revolving" eyes. It is a key example of a manufacturing variant noted by Dorothy Blair (1948), in which the glass bead was originally coated in black lacquer to create a striking contrast between the bright inlays and the dark background. Much of this lacquer has since flaked away, a condition noted in a 2005 conservation survey.

Label TextDuring the Warring States Period (ca. 475–221 BCE), glassmaking in China underwent a radical transformation. While earlier glass was often imported from the West (as soda-lime glass), Chinese artisans developed their own indigenous technology. They invented a new formula: lead-barium glass. This unique, high-density glass was technologically distinct from Mediterranean imports and was used to create brilliant, colorful objects, including these "eye" beads, which were powerful apotropaic symbols.

This bead belongs to a group of eight (1948.79-1948.86) exhibited by the dealer C. T. Loo at the Toledo Museum of Art’s East Asiatic Glass Exhibition in 1948. At the time, many of the beads were presumed to have come from Warring States Period tombs in Jincun, Henan Province, or the Chu State capital of Shouchun, Anhui Province.

Published ReferencesBlair, Dorothy. "An Exhibition of East Asiatic Glass." Artibus Asiae, vol. 11, no. 3 (1948), pp. 195-205.Exhibition History"East Asiatic Glass Exhibition," Toledo Museum of Art, 1948 (cat. no. 16).