Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art
Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art
Another Property
A Merovingian Rock Crystal and Silver Pendant, 6th Century A.D.
Lot Closed
July 7, 03:59 PM GMT
Estimate
3,000 - 5,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
A Merovingian Rock Crystal and Silver Pendant
6th Century A.D.
the stone sphere enclosed in a cruciform silver mount with punched and incised decoration, the four strips tied together with a wire at the top.
Height 5 cm.
reputedly discovered in the grave of a Frankish woman near Mühlhofen, Rhineland
Leopold Seligman (1886-1946), Cologne (Hermann Ball / Paul Graupe, Berlin, Die Sammlung Dr. Leopold Seligmann, Köln, April 28th-29th, 1930, no. 79, pl. XVIII: https://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/ball_graupe1930_04_28)
Sotheby's, London, July 9th-10th, 1984, no. 59
acquired by the present owner in 2012
A related example with silver mount is in the Musée d'archéologie nationale, St-Germain-en-Laye, 87.214 (M. Fleury and A. France-Lanord, Les trésors mérovingiens de la basilique de Saint-Denis, 1988, p. 231). A pendant with gold mount is in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 22.139.5 (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/466360). For a discussion of rock crystal pendants and their amuletic function see G. Kornbluth, "Transparent, Translucent, and Opaque: Merovingian and Anglo-Saxon Crystal Amulets", in C. Hahn and A. Shalem, eds., Seeking Transparency: Rock Crystals across the Medieval Mediterranean, 2020, pp. 67-77 (https://www.academia.edu/46001423/Transparent_Translucent_and_Opaque_Merovingian_and_Anglo_Saxon_Crystal_Amulets).