A large group of Near Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean beads and amulets
Late 5th...

A large group of Near Eastern and Eastern Mediterranean beads and amulets

Late 5th Millennium B.C. - 1^st Millennium A.D. and Later

Including four Western Asiatic mainly shell disc rings with circle designs, once inlaid, 7.4cm max diam, one damaged; a glazed frit disc with concentric circle designs, 4.9cm diam; a large grey stone pendant carved on one side with a stylised coiled snake, 8.5cm diam; a group of thirteen miniature shell and white hardstone amulets including recumbent bulls, double-headed birds, figures, a human head and a stamp seal, 30mm max; a green stone amuletic figure of a hermaphrodite lower torso, 22mm; five black stone heads, busts and figures, 12mm-27mm; a black stone bulls head pendant and a black stone amuletic bull, 18mm and 20mm, a red stone pendant bird, 27mm; a miniature lapis lazuli bead of a female bust, 11mm; a bone tooth-shaped pendant, 4.4cm; two bone human busts, 20mm max; two hardstone clenched fist pendants, 24mm max and a frit example, 13mm; three hardstone feet pendants, 10mm-25mm; a hardstone bird amulet and an obsidian fly amulet, 11mm max; five banded agate beads and pendants, including an amphora-shaped pendant, 19mm high; a lapis lazuli coffee-bean shaped bead and an obsidian coffee-bean shaped bead, 14mm and 22mm; three semi-translucent green stone butterfly beads, 29mm max diam; another one attached to its original bronze shaft, 34mm diam of bead, 11.2cm max length; a scallop-shaped pendant, 17mm high, and four other hardstone beads, pendants and seals; a large hardstone pear-shaped pendant with incised cross-hatched design, 4cm high; three fruit-shaped pendants, one in the form of a pomegranate, 20mm, and a green stone pendant with cross-hatched design, 19mm high; eight phallic amulets in hardstone, glass and frit, 10mm 27mm; an Egyptian blue glazed faience udjat eye, 3cm long; an Egyptian gold bead in the form of an udjat eye, 12mm; four frit and faience amulets of birds and fruit, 18mm max; a group of Roman glass objects including: four Roman glass spindle whorls; six miniature glass aryballoi or jugs; a janiform glass bearded male face bead, 20mm; a dark aubergine glass head pendant of an African, 18mm; three moulded pendants, two with a frog, one with a lion, 23mm max diam and two crescentic glass pendants, 15mm max (a lot)

Provenance:

Collection of Lady Gloria Dale (1922-2013) London, acquired during the 1960s-1972.

Christie's London Antiquities, 30 April 2008, lot 67.
UK private collection acquired from the above auction.

Exhibited:

Some items at The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, 1978.