Traces of bluish-green glaze can be seen on the surface of the quartz stones in these earrings in an effort to imitate turquoise. Sourced locally in Iran, turquoise was a favorite stone in the medieval period, and according to eleventh-century scholar Al-Biruni, was believed to protect from the evil eye. Glazing stones to modify their appearance is a practice that is known since antiquity and provided a more economical alternative to sourcing expensive gemstones.
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Top, left: 52.4.5 or .6; Top, right: 52.4.7 or .8; Bottom, left: 52.4.11 or .12; Bottom, right: 52.4.1 or .2; Light background
Artwork Details
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Title:Earring, One of a Pair
Date:12th century
Geography:Found Iran, probably Gurgan
Medium:Gold wire with filigree and pale stone
Classification:Jewelry
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1952
Accession Number:52.4.2
Four Pairs of Gold Earrings: 52.4.5 and .6, 52.5.7 and .8, 52.4.1 and .2, 54.4.11 and .12
Two of the four pairs of earrings bear strong points of comparison with either the "dated" bracelets (MMA 57.88a–c and Freer Gallery 58.6) or one or more of the earrings that are associated with them (MMA nos. 1979.7.4, 1979.96 and 1979.7.3a, b). Pair 52.4.1, .2, which originally must have been set with a stone or a piece of glass, bears strips of flattened wire forming heart-shape elements identical to those on no. 1979.7.4. Such strips are also present on the clasp of the "dated" bracelets, where, instead of forming heart-shape elements terminating in circles, flat strips are arranged in S-shape designs terminating in circles. The cage pendant from the hoop of this earring is very similar to the one on the single earring no. 1979.96. The three loops at the base of the earring originally must have held pendant elements.
No. 52.5.7, .8, which also must have been set with a stone or a piece of glass, may be compared to no. 1979.7.3a, b. Twisted wire cylinders between each of the three elements are found on both pairs of earrings, and the method of construction is the same: the heavy round ear wire serves also as the stringing wire for the three beads and passes through the center of each.
The relation of no. 54.4.11, .12 to no. 52.4.1, .2 is evident, even as regards the element that originally projected from the hoop. The stone in this case is quartz glazed to imitate turquoise. The bead at the back of the earring is very similar to the three comprising no. 52.4.5, .6. The latter pair, as with nos. 52.5.7, .8 and 1979.7.3a, b, is constructed of three beads strung on the continuous heavy ear wire and separated by a spacer–in this case a bead constructed solely of large grains.
It is often difficult to determine whether pieces of different quality but of the same general type are contemporaneous or whether the finer pieces precede or succeed those of lesser quality. We cannot, for instance, determine on which side of the datable group these four pairs fall. What can be said, however, is that there are many variations of the three-bead or three-element earring in early medieval Iran; a large number of similar earrings found in Russian excavations (in the region between the Sea of Azov and Moscow) have been dated between 1170 and 1240, mainly on the basis of associated coin hoards (e.g.,by Korzukhina[1]) This evidence, together with that put forward here, suggests a date safely within the early medieval period—i.e., from the eleventh century to the thirteenth, and an origin in Greater Iran.
[Jenkins and Keene 1983]
Footnotes:
1. Korzukhina, G. F. Russkie Kindy IX-Xlllvv. Moscow, 1954, pls. XXXI, XXXIII, XLV, XLVIII.
Majid and Feraidoon Movaghar, Tehran and New York (until 1952; sold to MMA)
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Islamic Jewelry in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 22–August 14, 1983, no. 21c.
Jenkins-Madina, Marilyn, and Manuel Keene. Islamic Jewelry in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1983. no. 21c, pp. 48–9, ill. p. 49 (color).
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