Pin with Decorative Comb Finial | Harvard Art Museums

Identification and Creation

Object Number: 1978.495.61
Title: Pin with Decorative Comb Finial
Other Titles: Former Title: Trident or Cadeuceus in Miniature (Comb)
Classification: Tools and Equipment
Work Type: implement
Date: 1st-5th century CE
Places: Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World
Period: Roman period
Culture: Roman
Persistent Link: https://hvrd.art/o/273974

Physical Descriptions

Medium: Copper alloy
Technique: Cast
Dimensions: 17.9 x 2.6 x 0.2 cm (7 1/16 x 1 x 1/16 in.)
Technical Details: Technical Observations: The patina is pale green over brown with red cuprite. One end is broken off, while many tips on the comb end are also broken off. The implement was cast and worked.

Carol Snow (submitted 2002)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History: Formerly in the collection of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, no. E-2338.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line: Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Transfer from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University
Accession Year: 1978
Object Number: 1978.495.61
Division: Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact: am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
One end of this object, which is perhaps a pin, is a flat, openwork vegetal design with what may be two stylized dolphins, pointed downward with their noses touching. Thin, sharp, pointed tines topped the decorative element; all but two of the tines are broken (1). The blunt tip and untapered shaft argue against an identification of the object as a pin and suggest instead that it was a decorative element of unknown function.

NOTES:

1. Compare a silver example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, inv. no. 47.100.27; see A. Oliver, “Two Hoards of Republican Silver,” The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 13.5 (1965) 177-85, esp. 183, figs. 9-10. For an Egyptian example of a pin-comb combination from Sakkara in the Teti Pyramid cemeteries, see W. Hayes, The Scepter of Egypt 2: The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom (1675-1080 B.C.) (New York, 1960) 402, fig. 253. Compare also a scraper published in N. Rauch, Instruments de chirurgie gréco-romains (Lausanne, 1961) 21, no. 75.

David Smart

Subjects and Contexts

Ancient Bronzes
Roman Domestic Art

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

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1978.495.61: Pin with Decorative Comb Finial