Lot 81
81
A MIGRATION PERIOD GOLD, GARNET AND GLASS FIBULA
A MIGRATION PERIOD GOLD, GARNET AND GLASS FIBULA
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This lot is offered without reserve. PROPERTY FROM A PRINCELY COLLECTION
A PAIR OF MEROVINGIAN GILT BRONZE AND GARNET BIRD BROOCHES

CIRCA 6TH CENTURTY A.D.

Details
A PAIR OF MEROVINGIAN GILT BRONZE AND GARNET BIRD BROOCHES
CIRCA 6TH CENTURTY A.D.
1 1/8 in. (2.8 cm.) long
Provenance
Reputedly found at Witernesse, near Saint-Omer, France, in the ancient province of Artois.
Comtesse Martine-Marie-Octavie Pol de Béhague (1870-1939), Paris; thence by descent to Marquis Jean-Louis Hubert de Ganay (1922-2013), France.
Antiquités et Objets d'Art: Collection de Martine, Comtesse de Béhague, Provenant de la Succession du Marquis de Ganay, Sotheby's, Monaco, 5 December 1987, lot 49.
with Robin Symes, London, 2006.
Literature
W. Froehner, Collection de la Comtesse R. De Béarn, Premier Cahier, Paris, 1905, p. 19, pl. IV, 14-15.
G. Thiry, Die Vogelfibeln der Germanischen Völkerwanderungszeit, Bonn, Band III, 1939, p. 113, no. 475. pl. 475.
Special notice
This lot is offered without reserve.

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Lot Essay


During the Merovingian period artistic traditions that were developed in Kent, such as these bird-shaped brooches, spread through commerce and many similar examples have been found in France, suggesting that they were either copied by local workshops or imported. Cf. accession no. 17.191.74 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York for a similar bird-shaped brooch.

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