String of Glass Beads (1392–1910): Art, History and Details

String of Glass Beads (1392–1910) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

An enormous amount of beaded strings and necklaces were excavated from Silla tomb sites. Glass, largely produced first in ancient Rome and then in Egypt and many central Asian states, reached the Korean peninsula through the Silk Road, the ancient global trade route. The glass beads used for this string must have been considered imported luxury materials.

Object facts

• Title: String of Glass Beads
• Date: 1392–1910
• Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
• Type: Jewelry
• Technique: glass
• Dimensions: Each bead: 1.5 cm (9/16 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1917.1063

A detail from the museum

Accessories such as a string of glass beads were among various burial items in the Joseon period (1392–1910).

Collection credit

Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.