reliquary; pendant; locket | British Museum

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reliquary; pendant; locket

Object Type: reliquary; pendant; locket
Museum number: AF.354
Description: Octagonal reliquary; gold; with hinged loop for suspension; the front divided by a horizontal line into two parts, on the upper is the Nativity and on the lower, the Adoration of the Magi, both engraved and filled with niello and silver; on the back is a monogrammatic cross raised on three steps and surrounded by an inscription; another inscription around the edge of the lid; cross and inscriptions are engraved and filled with niello; the reliquary is closed by a sliding pin inside.
Cultures/periods: Early Byzantine
Production date: 6thC
Production place: Made in: Constantinople
Findspot: Found/Acquired: Constantinople
Materials: gold; niello; silver
Technique: engraved; nielloed; inlaid
Dimensions: Length: 0.44 inches
$Inscriptions
Inscription subject: religious
Curator's comments: Dalton 1901 intuitively dated this object to the 10th or the 11th century, and this dating is repeated in the more recent literature. However, Mango 1994 has demonstrated that it was manufactured in the Early Byzantine period, no later than 626 (when the Church of Sts Cosmas and Damian oustide the walls of Constantinople was destroyed by the besieging Avars).
Bibliographic references: Dalton 1901 / Catalogue of Early Christian Antiquities and Objects from the Christian East in the Department of British and Medieval Antiquities and Ethnography of the British Museum (284); Bagnoli, Klein, Mann & Robinson 2011 / Treasures of Heaven: Saints, Relics and Devotion in Medieval Europe (33); Marzinzik 2013 / Masterpieces: Early medieval art (38); Mango 1994 / On the Cult of Saints Cosmas and Damian in Constantinople
Location: On display (G41/dc13)
Exhibition history: Exhibited: 2011 23 June-9 Oct, London, BM, 'Treasures of Heaven' 2011 13 Feb-8 May, Baltimore, Walters Museum of Art, 'Treasures of Heaven' 2010-2011 17 Oct-6 Jan, Ohio, Cleveland Museum of Art, 'Treasures of Heaven'
Subjects: nativity; cross; adoration of magi
Associated names: Representation of: Virgin Mary; Representation of: St Joseph; Representation of: Jesus Christ; Representation of: Caspar; Representation of: Balthazar; Representation of: Melchior; Representation of: Magi
Acquisition name: Bequeathed by: Sir Augustus Wollaston Franks
Acquisition date: 1897
Department: Britain, Europe and Prehistory
Registration number: AF.354