Face Bead
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for Face Bead
Face Bead
Place of OriginEastern Mediterranean, probably from Phoenicia or Carthage
DateSixth through fifth centuries BCE
DimensionsDiam: 1 in. (2.5 cm)
MediumRod-formed; tooled and applied features and blobs.
ClassificationGlass
Credit LineGift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1976.55
Not on View
DescriptionLarge bead with the likenesses of three human faces. Opaque turquoise-blue ground with one face each in opaque white, opaque yellow, and dark blue; each nose is in the color of the face; eyes on all faces are uniformly opaque white outlined in dark blue with dark blue centers; mouths are opaque white (but opaque yellow on the white face); ears also appear in the same color as the face and have opaque yellow or opaque white earrings. The opaque yellow face has well-defined dark blue eyebrows. Above, below, and between the faces are randomly applied spherical blobs of opaque white or opaque yellow. Cylindrical with a wide longitudinal threadhole.
Published ReferencesSeefried, Monique, Les pendentifs en verre sur noyau des pays de la Mediterranee antique, Collection de l'Ecole Francaise de Rome, no. 57, Rome, 1982, p. 146, no. F I 10.
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. 49, p. 90, repr. (col.) p. 71.
Markoe, Glenn, "A nation of artisans," Archaeology, vol. 43, no. 2, Mar/Apr. 1990, p. 32, repr.
6th - 5th centuries BCE
Fifth or fourth centuries BCE
Late 6th - 3rd century BCE
Third century BCE
Third century BCE
Late 6th-3rd century BCE
6th-5th century BCE
Third century BCE
3rd century BCE
Third century BCE
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