Necklace with Clasp of Two Bull Heads

Description This necklace is composed of 85 hollow gold beads, the openings edged with twisted wire. The beads are threaded onto a chain made of double loops of wire constricted in their centers and twisted so that the end loops are in perpendicular planes. The bulls' head finials have a collar consisting of a garnet bead held between gold cups encircled by smooth and twisted wire and a row of tongues. Each collar terminates in a gold cone, then a ring of twisted wire, and is attached to the chain by coiled, hollow wire. The forelock and mane of the bull are chased; the inlay of the eyes is missing. One bull holds in its mouth the hook, the other the loop. Chain necklaces threaded with gold or garnet beads and ending in animal head terminals were popular throughout the Hellenistic period.

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.
• From Alexander to Cleopatra: Greek Art of the Hellenistic Age. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. 1988-1989.

Provenance Giovanni Dattri, Cairo, [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Collections of Jean Lambros et Giovanni Dattari Sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, June 17-19, 1912, lot 572; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1912, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters, 1912