Advanced Search 
Plaque with two female heads
Greek, East Greek
Orientalizing Period
7th century B.C.
Medium/Technique
Electrum
Dimensions
Legacy dimension: .02 x .025
Credit Line
Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Accession Number99.402
CollectionsJewelry, Ancient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment
DescriptionThis plaque depicts two female heads in their own carefully articulated frames, often referred to as the ‘woman in the window’ motif. Rather than having been made by repousse, these heads were soldered onto a flat piece of electrum, as were the braided decorations that frame them. Each female head is further articulated with rows of filigree on the hair. The decorative row of circles are themselves decorated with small bordering rings of gold. At top, 3 cylinders would once have allowed the plaque to be suspended. Below, 4 hooks are attached to support decorative chains and balls. This ‘woman in the window’ type of plaque and its nearly identical companion, 99.403, are the only electrum plaques without perforations in their compositions, perhaps suggesting they were not subject to secondary usage.
ProvenanceBy date unknown: W. H. Forman Collection; inherited from him by Mrs. Burt and then, about 1889, by A. H. Browne; by 1899: with Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 13 Wellington Strand, London, W.C. (sale of the Forman collection, June 19-22, lot 397, partial; said to have come from Camirus); 1899: with Edward Perry Warren; 1899: purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren for $ 32,500.00 (this is the total price for MFA 99.338-99.542)