Roman Red Jasper Bead pendant, Roman Imperial Period, ca. 1st century CE

The thick barrel bead carved from banded bright red jasper with a large suspension hole through the center. 

Red jasper has been a highly-prized and revered mineral in almost all ancient cultures, from ancient Egypt to Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome, Gaul, and the ancient Americas.  The Romans dedicated jasper to Bona Dea, the goddess of fertility and chastity, attributing protective qualities to the stone for health and family.  It was often used in jewelry, seals, cameos, and intaglios to invoke protection, healing, and strength.

Medium: Red jasper

Dimensions: Bead length: 3/4 inch (1.9 cm).  Strung on an 18K gold chain of 18 inches

Condition: The bead is intact and in excellent collection.  It has been strung as a pendant on a modern 18-inch 18K yellow gold chain.

Provenance: Private collection of Lady Gloria Dale (1922 - 2013 ), Lady Gloria Dale, artist, British crafts patron, and wife of the late Sir William Dale, died December 18th in a hospice in Hampstead, London. She was 91. She and Sir William, a leading British Commonwealth lawyer and instructor in legislative drafting and international law, married in 1966. Lady Dale, who resided in Lincoln's Inn for the past 20 years, began a crafts career in her late 20s in Washington DC where she first made award-winning, artist-designed hand-tufted rugs that were exhibited in America (including the Museum of Modern Art in New York City), Italy and England during the 1960s. After she and Sir William returned to London from eight years of living in Beirut Lebanon in the early 1970s, she began to design jewelry using antique beads she collected throughout the Middle East. She later donated a collection of those antique beads to the British Museum.

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