Cleveland Museum of Art

Straight Pin

Date

c. 500 BCE

Medium

gold and glass

Culture

Etruscan

Department

Greek and Roman Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This gold straight pin is topped with a red glass bead set in a finial. Braided gold wire and granulated triangles surround the bead. Tiny spheres forming more triangles decorate the underside of the finial, some perhaps lost. The pin is gently twisted below the finial. Although it appears to be garnet, the bead in this pin was determined to be glass after close examination by two gemologists from the Natural History Museum. This pin was likely used to pin back women’s hair.

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