Necklace of Rosettes and Spacer Beads

Place of OriginGreece, probably Peloponnesos or Crete

Dateabout 1400-1200 BCE

DimensionsL: 11 in. (27.9 cm); W: 7/8 in (2.2 cm); L (lozenge-shaped spacer beads): 3/4 in. (1.9 cm); L (barrel-shaped spacer beads): 11/16 in. (1.7 cm)

MediumCast cobalt-blue glass and faience .

ClassificationGlass

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1953.139

Not on View

DescriptionA composite jewelry strand comprising eight dark blue cast glass rosette beads, each flanked by seven pairs of faience spacer beads. Each rosette has a convex surface with eight raised, concentric petal forms, radiating from a central domical boss. These were produced in open, one-piece molds, likely of steatite or soapstone. Each bead includes two parallel transverse threadholes to accommodate stringing. The faience spacer beads occur in two types: three pairs are light blue, lozenge-shaped, with central grooves on both sides; four pairs are turquoise-blue, barrel-shaped, some four-sided, with horizontal bands cut into their surfaces. The necklace may have been worn around the neck or integrated into clothing or headdress ornamentation.

Label TextThis necklace represents a distinctive category of Mycenaean ornament made from early cast glass. The eight dark blue rosette beads were molded using open, one-piece stone molds—a hallmark of Late Bronze Age Aegean glassworking. Spacer beads made from faience, a glazed ceramic material, alternate between lozenge and barrel shapes and were similarly pierced for stringing. Between 1400 and 1200 BCE, Mycenaean artisans produced glass beads in forms derived from elite iconography, including rosettes, leaves, and animals. These were not everyday items; they were often used as burial offerings or sewn onto ceremonial garments.Published ReferencesRiefstahl, Rudolf M., "Ancient and Near Eastern Glass," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News 4, no. 2, 1961, p. 29.

Riefstahl, Rudolf M., "The Complexities of Ancient Glass," Apollo 86, 1967, pp. 429-430, fig 4.

Labino, Dominick, Visual Art in Glass, Dubuque, Iowa, 1968, pp. 17-18, fig. 6.

Engle, A., "Ancient Glass in Its Context," Readings in Glass History, no. 10, Jerusalem, 1978, p. 24, ill.

Grose, David F., "Ancient Glass," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News 20, no. 3, 1978, p. 71, fig. 4.

Grose, David F., "The Origins and Early History of Glass," in The History of Glass, eds. Dan Klein and Ward Lloyd, London, 1984, p. 11, ill.

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. 25, p. 65, repr. (col.) p. 44.

Exhibition HistorySmith College Museum of Art, Northhampton, MA, A Land Called Crete; Minoan and Mycenaean Art from American and European Private and Public Collections, ex. cat., 1967, no. 55.

Hackens, T. and R. Winkes, eds., Gold Jewelry: Craft, Style, and Meaning from Mycenae to Constantinopolis, ex. cat., Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI, February-April 1983, Louvain, 1983, p. 42, no. 5 (W. E. Mierse).