Bead

Five Gold Beads: 1980.474.1–.5

The five gold beads nos. 1980.474.1–.5 purported to have been found with the spherical and biconical beads nos. 1980.456, .457, are, so far as we know, unique. However, the apparent attempt (at least in the case of the four large beads) to imitate in another technique the design of the spherical bead is not without parallel in the Fatimid period.[1] The beads exemplify curious exceptions to the almost universal employment of dapping for the production of "spherical" beads; rather, they are formed by appropriately cutting and bringing together the edges of pieces of sheet to approximate the spherical form, resulting in a structure more like a domical vault than a true dome, the shape of a dapped hemisphere.

While no practical or artistic advantage can be seen to result from the procedure, it is difficult to imagine that workmen capable of this quality of work, which includes colloid hard soldering, would be unfamiliar with the dapping process.

[Jenkins and Keene 1983]

Footnotes:

1. Jenkins, Marilyn. "Fatimid Jewelry, Its Sub-Types and Influences." Kunst des Orients 13, in press, p. 7, fig. 18.