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LOT 0910

Sold for (Inc. bp): £46

ROMAN BLACK GLASS BEAD NECKLACE STRING
4TH CENTURY A.D. AND LATER
18 1/8 in. (9.93 grams, 48 cm).

Composed of mainly oblate beads restrung to a Y-shape. [No Reserve]

PROVENANCE:
From the London, UK, art market in the 1990s.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

LITERATURE:
For example of similar black Roman beads see Then-Obluska, J., ‘Beads and pendants from the Hellenistic to early Byzantine Red Sea port of Berenike, Egypt, Seasons 2014 and 2015’ in Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean, 27/1, 2018, pp.203–234, figs. 7 (esp.8,10,11), 8 no.14, 10b no.55.

FOOTNOTES:
In the Roman period there was a strong formal and chromatic diversity of glass beads used for necklaces and bracelets. The most common beads in forms were small biconical (lenticular), barrel-shaped, spherical and annular; the most common colours were dark blue, followed by green and yellow. The succession of glass beads often imitates jewellery made of costly materials (gold, silver, semi-precious and precious stones). Green, blue-green, blue, yellow, and black drawn and rounded glass beads (like here) are late Roman types.

CONDITION
VETTING:
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