Description
This simple but colorful necklace is composed of fifty beads, most of which are glass or ceramic, with a single amethyst bead. Similar necklaces have been found in the graves of Frankish women in the Rhineland. This necklace is one of 21 said to have been excavated at Niederbreisig (Germany).
Provenance
Friedrich Queckenberg, Niederbreisig (Germany), ca. 1890; Joseph Queckenberg, Niederbreisig (Germany), 1909, by inheritance; Heinrich Dreesen, Sinzig (Germany); Jacques Seligmann, Paris; J. Pierpont Morgan, New York; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, no. 17.193.74; Sale 4629Y, Sotheby Park Bernet Inc., New York, May 29, 1981, lot. no. 25 ; Walters Art Museum, 1981, by purchase.