About the Artwork
Lunula
between 1800 and 1600 BCE
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Irish
Unknown
Gold
Overall: 2 5/8 × 8 11/16 inches, 2 ounces (6.7 × 22 cm, 56.6 g)
Metalwork
Greco-Roman and Ancient European
Founders Society Purchase, William H. Murphy Fund
53.268
This work is in the public domain.
Markings
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Provenance
found May 1867, (County Cork, near Middleton, Ireland)
sold 1936, (Goldschmidt Galleries, London, England)
collection of William Randolph Hearst
July 11-12, 1939, sale of the William Randolph Hearst Collection by (Sotheby & Co., London, England), lot 367, pl. XI [bought in]
1941, sale of the William Randolph Hearst Collection, (possibly Gimbels Department Store, New York, USA)
1953, (Berry-Hill Galleries, New York, New York, USA)
1953-present, purchase by the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance and its important function in the museum, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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The exhibition history of a number of objects in our collection only begins after their acquisition by the museum, and may reflect an incomplete record.
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Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society, vol. 39, sec. ser. (1934): pl. I, pp. 1-14.
Catalogue of the Important Collection of Antiquities, the Property of William Randolph Hearst. Sales cat., Sotheby & Co. London, July 11-12, 1939, lot 367, pl. XI.
Robinson, F. W. "Eight Examples of Prehistoric Irish Gold," Bulletin of the DIA 33, nos. 3-4 (1953-54): p. 64-5, (ill.) p. 65.
Taylor, J. "Lunulae Reconsidered," in Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, vol. 36 (1970): pp. 38-81.
Motz, T. A. "A Catalogue of Irish Prehistoric Gold Jewelry in the Collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts," unpublished master's thesis, Wayne State University, Detroit, 1978, no. 1, pp. 16-17, 19-23, pl. I-III.
Motz, T. A. "Irish Gold in Detroit," Bulletin of the DIA 57, no. 2 (1979): pp. 84-5, (fig. 1F) [article pp. 83-88, group photo p. 82].
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Irish, Lunula, between 1800 and 1600 BCE, gold. Detroit Institute of Arts, Founders Society Purchase, William H. Murphy Fund, 53.268.
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