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Steelyard Weight with a Bust of a Byzantine Empress and a Hook

400–450
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 301
Steelyard weights often took the shape of busts of Byzantine empresses. This unusually detailed image may depict an empress of the Theodosian dynasty, which ruled from 379 to 450. The weight—itself about five pounds, or seven Byzantine litrae—would have been used for heavier goods.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Steelyard Weight with a Bust of a Byzantine Empress and a Hook
  • Date: 400–450
  • Culture: Byzantine
  • Medium: Copper alloy, filled with lead, brass hook
  • Dimensions: 9 1/2 × 4 1/2 × 2 13/16 in., 12.5 lb. (24.2 × 11.5 × 7.1 cm, 5664g)
    Other (Hook): 8 7/8 × 3 × 1 1/4 × 1/4 in., 0.4 lb. (22.6 × 7.6 × 3.2 × 0.7 cm, 176g)
  • Classification: Metalwork-Copper alloy
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Gifts of J. Pierpont Morgan, Mrs. Robert J. Levy, Mr. and Mrs. Frederic B. Pratt, George Blumenthal, Coudert Brothers and Mrs. Lucy W. Drexel, by exchange; Bequest of George Blumenthal and Theodore M. Davis Collection, Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, by exchange; and Rogers Fund, 1980
  • Object Number: 1980.416a, b
  • Curatorial Department: Medieval Art and The Cloisters

Audio

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2810. Steelyard Weight with the Bust of a Woman

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