Bead, One of a Pair

Pair of Gold Beads

Because nos. 1981.5.18, .19 are the only beads of their type known to us, we can only speculate as to how they were used in combination with other elements; it is likely, however, that they were strung as a necklace and separated by small pearls in multiple strands, as was common on many seventeenth-, eighteenth-, and nineteenth-century Moroccan necklaces.[1]

Although this type of pushed-up setting on a repoussé ground of thin metal is typical of Moroccan jewelry (see MMA 67.145.12), the fine workmanship and design, including the dense setting of stones in graduated rows on the mellon like form, create an effect unparalleled in the work of this school.[2]

[Jenkins and Keene 1983]

Footnotes:

1. E.g. L'lslam dans les collections nationales, exhibition catalogue. Grand Palais, Paris, 1977, no. 371.

2. Ibid., no. 368.

Marguerite McBey (American), Tangier, Morocco (until 1981; gifted to MMA)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Islamic Jewelry in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 22–August 14, 1983, no. 76.

New York. The Hagop Kevorkian Special Exhibitions Gallery, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Fifty Years of Collecting Islamic Art," September 23, 2013–January 26, 2014, no catalogue.

Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn, and Manuel Keene. Islamic Jewelry in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1983. no. 76, p. 135, ill. (color).