Merovingian Rock Crystal Bead

The rock crystal sphere enclosed within four sheet gold strips forming a cruciform, each strip with beaded filigree border, a further applied filigree cross on underside, with high square-shaped attachment collar pierced at either end with filigreedecoration, threaded with slip-knot suspension ring.

Art market, 1980’s;

Ex- private collection, Nuremberg, Germany, 1980s.

For a similar Merovingian rock crystal pendant with slip-knot suspension loop and filigree decoration, found in Artres, France, dated to the 6th Century cf. The British Museum inv. no. AF.518. For another sphere with similar attachment collar withfiligree decoration found in Saint-Denis, Paris, cf. inv. no. MAN 87.204 in Musée d’Archéologie Nationale, St-Germain-en-Laye, France. For a Hunnic or Frankish sphere of the 4th-5th Century A.D. cf. inv. no. 22.139.51 in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.