These elaborately decorated bracelets have richly jeweled exteriors and finely detailed opus interrasile patterns on their interiors. The luminous beauty of pearls was highly prized in the Byzantine world.
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Dimensions:Overall: 1 1/2 x 3 1/4 in. (3.8 x 8.2 cm) strap: 7/8 x 7 11/16 in. (2.3 x 19.5 cm) bezel: 1 5/16 in. (3.4 cm)
Classification:Metalwork-Gold
Credit Line:Gift of J. Pierpont Morgan, 1917
Accession Number:17.190.1671
Said to have been found near Assiut or Antinoe, near Nile (Upper Egypt); [ Maurice Nahman, Cairo (sold 1912)]; J. Pierpont Morgan (American), London and New York (1912–1913)
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New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Jewelry: The Body Transformed," November 12, 2018–February 24, 2019.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Africa & Byzantium," November 13, 2023–March 3, 2024.
Cleveland Museum of Art. "Africa & Byzantium," April 14–July 21, 2024.
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Dennison, Walter. Studies in East Christian and Roman Art: Part II, A Gold Treasure of the Late Roman Period. University of Michigan Studies, Humanistic Series, Vol. 12. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1918. no. 28, 29, pp. 157–59, pl. XLIX.
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Wagner de Kertesz, Margarita. Historia Universal de las Joyas. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Centurion, 1947. p. 266.
Schlunk, Helmut. "The Crosses of Oviedo : A Contribution to the History of Jewelry in Northern Spain in the Ninth and Tenth Centuries." The Art Bulletin 32 (June 1950). p. 98 n. 48.
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Brown, Katharine R. "The Mosaics of San Vitale: Evidence for the Attribution of Some Early Byzantine Jewelry to Court Workshops." Gesta 18, no. 1 (1979). p. 58, fig. 5.
Weitzmann, Kurt, ed. Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, Third to Seventh Century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1979. no. 300, pp. 323–24.
Shepard, Mary B. Europe in the Middle Ages, edited by Charles T. Little, and Timothy B. Husband. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. pp. 34–35, pl. 24.
Brown, Katharine R. Migration Art, A.D. 300-800. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1995. pp.16, 49–51, fig. 12.
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Evans, Helen C., Melanie Holcomb, and Robert Hallman. "The Arts of Byzantium." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 58, no. 4 (Spring 2001). p. 19.
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Evans, Helen C., and Brandie Ratliff, ed. Byzantium and Islam: Age of Transition, 7th–9th century. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2012. p. 126, fig. 54.
Dospěl Williams, Elizabeth. "Into the Hands of a Well-Known Antiquary of Cairo: The Assiut Treasure and the Making of an Archaeological Hoard." West 86th: A Journal of Decorative Arts, Design History, and Material Culture 21, no. 2 (2014). fig. 5, pp. 257, 259.
Holcomb, Melanie, ed. Jewelry: The Body Transformed. New Haven: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2018. no. 94, pp. 117–18, 266, pl. 94.
Hope, Deborah. "Pearls Found in Ancient Greek and Roman Contexts in the Mediterranean." Mediterranean Archaeology (2019). pp. 46, 80, pl. 10, fig. 5.
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