Gold pendant cross
It is in the form of a croix pattée (cross with paws) whose arms flare outwards from a central roundel with a pearl set in the middle and culminate in four similar discs framed by the eight round terminals of the arms of the cross (the paws of the croix pattée). The entire surface is executed in fine filigree, a technique which finds parallels in the contemporary jewellery of Fatimid Egypt and which continues in the Greek islands well into the Ottoman period.
Origin
Constantinople (?)
Date
Middle Byzantine period, 10th-12th century
Height: 4 cm
Width: 3.03 cm
Weight: 4.71 g
Provenance
Private collection, England
Acquired by AXIA from MN, London in 2017