Page 602 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

469

BEADED NECKPIECE
probably after 1470
Chimu
spondylus, mussel, jet, mother-of-pearl,
cotton string
3
35 x 34.5 (ij /4 x ijVz)
American Museum of Natural History, New York

This neckpiece, with a wavelike design, has two
pairs of ties for attachment. It is made without a
fabric backing (A. Rowe 1984,165-167, fig. 173).
The beads are strung in an alternating alignment:
two threads pass through each bead; the threads
are then separated and grouped with adjacent
threads to hold the next row of beads.
The Chimu people, living on the coast, used the
resources of the sea. Especially valuable was the
shell of Spondylus princeps, one of the materials
used here. The black bead material has been iden-
tified as jet.
This piece is said to have been found at Chan
Chan with a group of other shell-bead objects.
It was presented to the American Museum of
Natural History by J. Pierpont Morgan in 1896.
E.P.B.

THE AMERICAS 6oi