Among specimens of the late Egyptian work we may note here some objects in the Louvre:
A pleasing decoration on gold wire is a necklace in the collection of the Egyptian Gallery. In this very small pearls are used as a connective decoration for the points of leaves, and to hold the leaves and ornaments is a gold wire which is secured by bending. This piece comprises 104 pearls, a greater number than is contained in any other object of antiquity found in Egypt.
An Egyptian pendant of unknown origin is also shown in this collection. At the lower end is a bull’s head, caparisoned, and the tip of each horn is fitted with a ball like the embolados toros of the Spanish bull-fights. The rein is double, and above this there are two rondelles of an unidentified material; then comes a rondelle of lapis lazuli, and after this a rondelle of gold. The whole is strung with twisted gold wire. The center stone is an hexagonal amethyst, evidently a crystal, the two faces of which had been polished and incised. One of these faces represents a priest with a staff of office, and the other a priest holding an incense-burner with the hieroglyph of the altar. With one hand he is offering the two sacrifices, the mineral and the vegetable; in the other he holds a garland of flowers or leaves. Above this is an Oriental pearl somewhat worn and abraded. All these are secured by a twisted gold wire, to which four tiny gold beads of graduated size are affixed at the top of the pendant.
There are six other pendants and earrings in the Egyptian Gallery, all of which contain pearls, and in most instances these pearls have been drilled and suspended by metal wires, unless they are used as an ornament facing outward. In four instances they are secured by a peg of gold.
The Assyrian and Persian bas-reliefs show that the sovereigns and great personages of those countries adorned themselves profusely with pearls. They wore them not only in their jewelry, but also on their garments and even in their beards![[423]] The coins of the Persian kings also bear testimony to the use of the gem in ancient Persia, since the sovereigns are represented wearing tiaras ornamented with triple rows of pearls.[[424]] The same may be said of the imperial Roman diadem from the time of Caracalla (188–217 A.D.).
One of the most interesting of all ancient pearl necklaces,[[425]] containing more pearls than any other that has been found, and in a better state of preservation, is the Susa necklace now in the Persian Gallery of the Louvre Museum. It consists of three rows, each containing 72 pearls, so that there are 216 in all. Ten gold bars, formed of three small disks, each about five millimeters in diameter, divide the necklace into nine equal sections; at each end there is a disk, ten millimeters in diameter, to which the three strands are secured. If there was any other setting, it has evidently disappeared, although it is quite possible that there may only have been a string at each end, as in the East Indian necklaces.
ANTIQUE ORNAMENTS OF PEARLS
No. 1. Gold pin from Paphos, Island of Cyprus, mounted with large marine and small fresh-water pearl, now in British Museum.
Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Gold earrings and pins set with pearls, now in the Egyptian Gallery of the Louvre, Paris.
No. 9. Pearl and gold necklace found at Susa, Persia, now in the Louvre, Paris.
This ornament was found on the site of the ancient Susa or Shushan by M. J. de Morgan, February 10, 1901, in a bronze sarcophagus, which contained the skeleton of a woman, adorned with a great number of gold ornaments set and incrusted with precious stones. M. de Morgan gives circa 350 B.C. as the probable date of these objects. The pearls were much deteriorated. About 238 were found, but many of them crumbled away when they were touched. M. de Morgan considers that the necklace was of the type of the “dog-collar” of to-day, and he believes that it originally comprised from 400 to 500 pearls.
According to a personal communication from M. P. Cavvadias, of the Société Archéologique d’Athènes, there are no pearls on the ancient ornaments preserved in the National Museum at Athens. This is hardly surprising in view of the fact that the greater part of these ornaments belong to the archaic period of Greek art; that is to say, to a time when the pearl was evidently unknown to the Greeks.