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Barnebys HQ
Brahegatan 10
BOX 5038
114 37 Stockholm
All auctions / Jewellery & Gems / Six Egyptian Faience Bead Strands, Late Period to Roman
Ancient Egypt, Late Dynastic Period to Roman Period. Six long strands of ancient Egyptian faience beads. Each one is a slender river of small disc and ring beads, hundreds to a strand. The colors run unevenly through them. Turquoise and pale sea-green lead, with notes of buff, ochre, aubergine, and a deep brownish red in between. The glazes have softened over many centuries into a powdery, sun-faded bloom, and no two beads match exactly. The beads were gathered in modern times and strung on modern cord. Small metal spacer beads mark the length of each strand, and metal terminals finish the ends. All of this was done to keep the beads organized, not to recreate any original arrangement. With clasps fitted, each strand could be worn as a long necklace, wrapped several times around the throat, or layered together. Egyptian faience is not true pottery. Its body is ground quartz or sand mixed with small amounts of lime and natron or plant ash. During firing, alkaline salts rise to the surface and fuse into a bright glassy skin. Copper compounds give the familiar blue-green. Other colorants made the yellows, reds, and purples seen on strands like these. The Egyptians called the material tjehenet, which means "dazzling," and connected its gleam with light, renewal, and the turquoise of the eastern deserts. From the Late Period through Ptolemaic and Roman times, faience disc and tube beads were made in huge numbers. They were worn in life, and they were also threaded into the bead nets and collars laid over wrapped mummies. Mixed modern restringings like this one gather that output together, beads from many workshops and centuries side by side. Item # 203460
Estimate:£302.69
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Estimate:
£302.69
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