Paired Eye Bead

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Object Name: 
Paired Eye Bead
Accession Number: 
54.1.140-4
Dimensions: 
Overall D: 1.6 cm
Location: 
Not on Display
Date: 
600-250 BCE
Primary Description: 
Paired Eye Bead. Translucent deep blue, translucent green, translucent greenish-grey, translucent blue-green, turquoise, opaque white, and opaque yellow glass, various lightly weathered surfaces; formed on a rod, trail-decorated. Short barrel-shaped bead of greenish-blue glass, four sets of double eyes arranged like figure-eights, the eyes with blue centers on an alternating white and blue ground, all are marvered into the surface.
Department: 
Provenance: 
Kouchakji, Fahim (b. Syria, 1886-1976), Source
Category: 
Past | Present: Expanding the Stories of Glass
Venue(s)
Corning Museum of Glass 2022-05-15 through 2023-01-08
Past | Present: Expanding the Stories of Glass is an exhibition of glass objects with rich stories presented in ways that allow visitors to share their perspectives on what they are seeing as they tour the exhibition. The exhibition explores how objects can reveal stories about people across time and place, providing connections to the past, meaning in the present, and even ways to consider the future. More than 10 distinct vignettes will investigate how the Museum can broaden voices and narrative in our galleries. Generally, labels that accompany objects in museum galleries are written by museum curators and educators—and often focus on just one of an almost infinite number of possible stories and meanings. In this exhibition, objects—either alone or as a group—and their stories provide an entry point for further conversation.  Exhibition visitors will be introduced to the idea that the stories objects tell are always evolving. In fact, it is happening around them in the exhibition space. Visitors will be able to share their thoughts and add their ideas to the exhibition.
Venue(s)
Corning Museum of Glass 2013-05-18 through 2014-01-05
For 30,000 years, mankind has crafted beads from natural materials. With the discovery of glassmaking in the second millennium B.C., glass began to be used for this same purpose. Glass beads are universal. They have been produced throughout the 35 centuries of glass manufacturing, and by nearly every culture in the world. The glass beads and beaded objects on view in this exhibition are arranged thematically, comparing the manner in which diverse cultures have utilized beads, frequently for the same purposes, but sometimes for unique reasons. These themes explore how glass beads adorn the body and our possessions; how they convey messages about power and wealth, and identify the stages of human life; how they serve ritual purposes, as well as decorate clothing and objects used in rituals; and how they have been employed across the centuries as a means of exchange, both commercial and cultural. Through the centuries, beads have been made using a variety of processes. Understanding how beads were made has allowed scholars to follow the transmission of beads and beadmaking techniques across the globe. Across time and around the world, glass beads have become a common element of mankind. Through their manufacture and function, they are one of the strings that bind humanity together. “Life on a String” celebrates this common bond while also revealing the distinctiveness of different societies through their use of glass beads to celebrate their unique cultural heritage.
 
Tracing Eye Beads Through Time (2013-03) illustrated, p. 24, fig. 3, upper right; BIB# AI92488
Pre-Roman and Early Roman Glass in The Corning Museum of Glass (1979) illustrated, pp. 115-116, #239, pl. 9; BIB# 29547