ornament
- Museum number
- 1960,1101.48
- Description
-
Gold myrtle spray. The stem is made from gold sheet over a bronze core. There are three sizes of leaf: the two larger pairs are pushed into holes in the stem, the smallest pair inserted into the end of the tube. Inserted beside the pair of middle-sized leaves are myrtle flowers on long wire stems. These consist of a cup with a serrated top, a six-petalled flower, and a central rod holding a ring of twenty-four blob-ended stamens and capped with a disc. The discs have an inner and an outer ring of fine spiral-beaded wire, both of which were presumably once filled with enamel. Function unknown.
- Production date
- 400BC-350BC
- Dimensions
-
Height: 9 centimetres (as preserved)
-
Weight: 7.20 grammes
- Curator's comments
-
Found in 1816.6-10.115.
-
Williams and Ogden 1994
The end of the spray is crimped, indicating that it was once inserted into something. The presence of a bronze core, however, may suggest that the spray was not part of a full-scale wreath, for these are usually constructed from a hollow gold tube without a bronze core.
Another myrtle spray of similar construction, but with myrtle fruit as well as flowers, was found in central Macedonia. Unfortunately it was a chance find, so nothing more is known of its function.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: A.H. Smith, JHS 46 (1926), p. 255, fig. 2. Spray from Macedonia: Makedonia, no. 210.
(Pictured in JHS much compacted and with only one myrtle flower - the other found separately and restored?)
- Location
- On display (G19/dc1)
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
June - October 2012, UK, Edinburgh, Scottish National Gallery, 'Expanding Horizons: Giovanni Battista Lusieri and the Panoramic Landscape'.
- Acquisition date
- 1960
- Department
- Greek and Roman
- Registration number
- 1960,1101.48
