Polyhedral Beads

Description These ten beads were probably part of a woman's necklace. They are made of thin sheet gold that was cut and folded around a core of pitch (pine resin). Slices of garnet, backed with foil to enhance their brilliance, were inserted into the pitch between the gold frames. This technique of combining gold and foil-backed garnets is characteristic of the Goths of South Russia.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
4/19/1984	Treatment	cleaned

Exhibitions

• Romans and Barbarians. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston. 1976-1977.
• Early Christian and Byzantine Art. Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore. 1947.
• 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 Joseph Chmielowski, Ochakov, Ukraine; Joseph Chmielowski Sale, Amercian Art Gallery, New York, February 23-25, 1922, lot 710; Henry Walters, New York, [date of acquisition unknown] by purchase; Sadie Jones (Mrs. Henry Walters), New York, 1931, by inheritance; Mrs. Henry Walters Sale, New York, December 1-4, 1943, lot 537; The Hammer Galleries, New York [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, September 19, 1945, by purchase.

Credit Museum purchase with funds provided by the S. & A.P. Fund, 1945