Disk Fibula

Description While most disk fibulae are decorated with filigree, this one was made by the technique of repoussé, in which metal foil is impressed from the rear to form a raised design. The gilt silver foil, decorated with C-shaped scrolls and raised beaded outlines, is attached by four rivets onto a circular bronze base and set with four triangular-cut garnets arrayed around a green glass bead. The corroded remains of an iron clasp on the reverse once fasten the fibula to clothing and still hold imbedded wool cloth fibers. A Frankish man would have used a fibula like this one to pin his cloak at the right shoulder.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
10/10/1960	Treatment	cleaned; coated
10/10/1960	Treatment	cleaned; other
6/01/1983	Treatment	examined for loan
4/19/1984	Treatment	cleaned; stabilized; coated; other
4/19/1984	Treatment	cleaned
2/16/2000	Treatment	cleaned

Exhibitions

• Jewelry - Ancient to Modern. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1979-1980.
• Objects of Adornment: Five Thousand Years of Jewelry from the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York; Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio; Philbrook Museum of Art, Tulsa; Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu; New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee; Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis; Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota. 1984-1987.
• Jewelry from the Walters Art Gallery and the Zucker Family Collection. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1987.

Provenance Carlebach Gallery, New York [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1959, by purchase.

Credit Museum purchase with funds provided by the S. & A.P. Fund, 1959