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Silk Road Collection
Glass

Tile with gold sandwich decoration

  • West Asia
  • 9th-12th century AD
  • Byzantine
  • Glass,Gold
  • H8.0×W9.0cm

This is a tile with a geometric design where small and large triangular pieces of gold leaf were inserted and welded into a slab of colorless, transparent glass. It is considered to have been used as architectural decoration in the Byzantine Empire. The same production technique was used in “gold sandwich glass” beads used in accessories.