Lot 146

Egyptian Faience & Stone Bead Strands - Six Restrung Necklaces

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Lot 146
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Egyptian Faience & Stone Bead Strands - Six Restrung Necklaces
Egyptian Faience & Stone Bead Strands - Six Restrung Necklaces
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Egyptian Faience & Stone Bead Strands - Six Restrung Necklaces

Estimate: $800 - $1,200

Starting Bid: $400

(0 Bids)
by Artemis Fine Arts
August 6, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

North Africa, Egypt, Late Dynastic to Roman period, ca. 664 BCE – 395 CE. A cascade of six long strands threaded with hundreds of small disc beads in faience and stone, their surfaces weathered to a muted spectrum of turquoise, sage, ochre, and dusky rose. Each bead is a modest ring, roughly uniform in scale, the faience once glazed a brilliant blue-green now softened by millennia in the earth. Ancient Egyptians prized faience for its luminous color, associated with rebirth, fertility, and the life-giving Nile, and strung such beads into broad collars, girdles, and funerary nettings. Interspersed stone beads add tonal variation and quiet weight. Now restrung on six modern threads, the beads remain wearable should clasps be added, offering the rare pleasure of adorning oneself in genuine antiquity spanning the Late Dynastic through Roman horizons of Egypt. Size of beads (roughly the same): 0.2" D x 0.2" H (0.5 cm D x 0.5 cm H); of strands (about the same): 35" L (88.9 cm L).

Faience, a non-clay ceramic of ground quartz coated in an alkaline glaze, was Egypt's signature bright material, known to its makers as tjehenet, "that which is brilliant." Its blue-green sheen evoked turquoise and lapis, colors linked to the heavens, water, and regeneration. Small disc beads like these were produced in vast quantities, sewn into bead-net shrouds laid over the mummified dead and strung into jewelry for the living alike, so that the same humble form served both the tomb and the toilette across many centuries.

Provenance: Collection of Y. Kayvan, Los Angeles, California, USA, acquired from a Los Angeles, California, USA gallery acquisition dates range from the late 1990s to 2005

SHIPPING: We coordinate worldwide shipping in-house through specialist international forwarders experienced with fine art and antiquities customs manifests. International buyers must confirm, prior to bidding, that their country's customs authority will accept the item. All duties, taxes, clearance fees, and any costs arising from customs delays, seizures, re-export, returns, or loss in transit are the buyer's sole responsibility. Artemis assumes no liability for items refused entry, detained, or lost after export. We cannot ship ancient items to their country of origin (Egyptian to Egypt, Greek to Greece, etc.).

PAYMENT EXCEPTION: For clients not previously established with Artemis, payment for all gold, precious metal, and gemstone lots must be made by bank wire transfer or certified bank check/money order, without exception.

Item # 203431

  • Condition: Ancient beads strung on modern strands to be wearable. One also strung with a few modern gold-colored spacer beads. Expected age wear to beads with abrasions and weathering in areas. Otherwise, all are very nice and wearable with good pigments.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000