A folded clipping kept in the green clothbound ledger of Saul A. Halpern (Shelf 6 of the basement cabinet, q.v. inventory of 4 March 1968). The clipping is taken from the Δελτίον Αρχαιολογικού Μουσείου Αθηνών (Bulletin of the Athens Archaeological Museum), Volume XIV (1937), pages 188–189. The Greek text is reproduced in translation; the photograph plate is described.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF AN ANONYMOUS DONATION
The Bulletin is pleased to record, in the names of the Trustees of the National Archaeological Museum, the receipt by the Museum in the second quarter of 1937 of an anonymous donation of an object of evident Byzantine workmanship and considerable interest. The object, which has been catalogued by the Bulletin's secretary under the provisional reference A.B.-1937-44, is described below; readers will excuse the brevity of the present notice, the donor having requested through his attorney that no further particulars of provenance be published until such time as the donor's heirs may release the file.
A.B.-1937-44. A silver pendant of bird form, with niello-work in chevron pattern across both wings and the tail; length 32 mm, weight 7.4 g. The bird is depicted with wings half-spread and the head turned slightly to the proper left. Suspended from a chain of later workmanship (Continental, probably 17th cent.) which has been retained with the pendant for the present catalogue entry.
A Greek inscription is incised upon the reverse in three groups, reading Ω ΧΡΕ Ε (the abbreviation common in the IXth and Xth centuries for Χριστὲ ἐλέησον, Christ have mercy). The lettering is of the period and is consistent with workshop practice attested at Constantinople and at Thessalonica.
The lower left wing exhibits a slight ancient damage at its leading edge — a small bend, no more than 6 mm — believed by the cataloguer to be of considerable antiquity and probably pre-dating the object's first dispersal from Constantinople (which the cataloguer dates to the events of 1204).
The object is published with photograph at plate XIV-3. The Bulletin invites correspondence from scholars who may have notice of a similar object in any collection, public or private, in the matter of comparative niello-workmanship of the Constantinopolitan school.
— The Editors.
Plate XIV-3. (Photograph: a silver pendant of bird form, photographed at slight enlargement, in three-quarter view, on a plain dark velvet ground; chain visible at the upper edge. The bend in the lower left wing is clearly recorded by the photograph. A scale-bar of 20 mm is set beneath the object.)
[Pencilled marginal in Saul A. Halpern's hand, on the verso of the clipping:]
The bend is correct. The chevron is correct. The lettering is correct. The chain is correct.
The weight is wrong. By 0.3 g. — S.A.H., 12 Sept 1937.