Roman Glass Crumb Beads

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Roman Glass Crumb Beads
CULTURE / REGION OF ORIGIN: Roman Empire, possibly Alexandria
DATE: 1st - 4th Century AD.
DIMENSIONS: 2.2 cm (0.85 inches) wide for the largest bead.

DESCRIPTION: A group of three Romano-Egyptian glass crumb beads. Two beads are of very dark brown or blue glass, appearing black, one is of yellow glass, and all are decorated with chips (“crumbs”) of red, yellow, blue or green glass marvered flush with the matrix. On the largest bead a few crumbs have degraded and fallen away, leaving empty pock marks; otherwise the group in intact with good color.

PROVENANCE: Formerly the property of a private London owner, inherited from her father who used to own an antique shop in London in the mid-1970s-80s. Also formerly Christie’s antiquities sale, London, 30 October, 1989, Lot 45.

PUBLISHED: Bonhams Catalogue, ANTIQUITIES, 13 October, 2006, London, part of Lot 274, page 116, not illustrated.

COMPARISONS: See Maud Spaer, Ancient Glass in the Israel Museum, Beads and Other Small Objects, numbers 225-228 for very similar examples of Roman crumb beads. Also, see the Petrie Museum of Egyptology, collections online (www.petrie.uc.ac.uk), Museum Number UC37304 for an example of a Roman-Egyptian glass crumb bead in lighter blue, Museum Number UC51668.

Item #CA-09-120

Price $85.00