Earring

Date:: 675–725

Culture:: Frankish

Medium:: Silver

Dimensions:: Overall: 3 1/4 x 3/16 in. (8.3 x 0.5 cm) Hoop: 3 1/4 in. (8.3 cm) Bead: 1/4 in. (0.6 cm)

Classification:: Metalwork-Silver

Credit Line:: Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917

Accession Number:: 17.193.105

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 301

Hoop earrings with polyhedral beads, derived from late Roman jewelry, remained fashionable among Frankish women from the 400s through the 700s. Many are delicate pieces, their beads decorated with garnets or precious stones. Others, often with the least imposing beads, impress by their large hoops and distinctive closures.

Friedrich Queckenberg, Niederbreisig, Germany; Joseph Queckenberg, Niederbreisig, Germany; J. Pierpont Morgan, London and New York (until 1917)

Ricci, Seymour de. Catalogue of a Collection of Germanic Antiquities Belonging to J. Pierpont Morgan. Paris: C. Berger, 1910. no. 105, p. 14, pl. VIII.

Brown, Katharine R., Dafydd Kidd, and Charles T. Little, ed. From Attila to Charlemagne: Arts of the Early Medieval Period in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York and New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000. p. 245, 354, fig. 31.5.

Timelines
Central Europe (including Germany), 500–1000 A.D.

From Attila to Charlemagne: Arts of the Early Medieval Period in The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Jewelry

Department

Medieval Art (7,126)

Object Type / Material

Costume (43,145)

Ear ornaments (2,201)