Greek Jewellery
Byzantine Jewellery
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Very few of the masterpieces of Constantinopolitan goldsmithing have survived of the precious crowns and the other insignia of royal authority, of the treasures of the imperial palace, the courtiers, the military officers and the prelates, of the sacristies of Hagia Sophia and the other churches and monasteries. Those pieces preserved over the centuries, despite times of economic hardship, were mostly lost during the sack of the world's richest and most magnificent city, by the Crusaders in 1204 and in the final fall to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. |
| Fig. 15 Athens, Byzantine Museum T 1402. Gilded silver belt of articulated plates and integral buckle with floral ornaments in filigree, glass-paste 'gems' and enamel. Dimensions: 77 X 11.5cm. 1836. |
