Egyptian
A necklace of Egyptian jasper beads with a gold capped rock crystal bead, New Kingdom, circa 1550 - 1070 BC
Jasper, gold, rock crystal
Length: 39.5 cm
The restrung necklace is composed of lentoid beads in carnelian and red jasper, interspersed with four large ovoid beads in carnelian and red and green jasper, and a central rock...
The restrung necklace is composed of lentoid beads in carnelian and red jasper, interspersed with four large ovoid beads in carnelian and red and green jasper, and a central rock crystal cylinder bead with gold terminal caps. Restrung with a modern gold clasp.
Provenance
With Byron Zoumboulakis, Geneva, 1970s
Private Collection, Aarau, thence by descent
Private Collection, SwitzerlandExhibitions
On Loan: Antikenmuseum Basel & Sammlung Ludwig, 1998 – 2022Literature
There are similarly shaped lentoid faience beads from the 18th dynasty in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, acc. no. 36.3.154. Rock crystal was relatively rare in ancient Egyptian amulets, and it is likely that such a bead may have come from the Near East.