Origin: Egypt (Sinai)
Circa: 1600 BC to 1100 BC
Collection: Egyptian
Medium: Faience-Amber
This unusual necklace brings together amber and faience, two of the ornaments most prized by the ancients. Faience, a glass composite glaze, was introduced in Egypt as early as the Pre-Dynastic period. Beads of various sizes and shapes were formed from clay, coated with faience paste and then fired to bright colors. The majority of beads were in shades of blue or green, but red, yellow and black were also popular. In the art of Egypt’s Golden Age, beautiful women are shown adorned with strand after strand of faience beads. Very often, such jewelry was buried in tombs to bring pleasure through eternity. In this lovely necklace, the beads certainly fulfill their promise. Amber, the fossilized resin of extinct trees, is one of the oldest gems known to mankind. Its use as an amulet or for jewelry stretches back to the Stone Age. It was traded throughout the ancient world along routes that led from the north to the palaces of Crete, Egypt and Babylon. Homer mentions amber in the Odyssey. In color, amber varies in hue from pale yellow, to honey brown, to deep orange, to red. Combined here with Egyptian Faience, Amber helps create a Jewel that the Queen of Sheba, Nefertite or Helen of Troy might have worn with pride. - (FJ.3868)

Antiquities
Ancient Jewelry