dog beads

The Reddit community r/Artefact Porn is not porn at all (well, it usually isn't, but some of those Roman murals...).  Rather, it's a collection of curious finds from anywhere and any time: a Scythian crown, an Italian boy's little armor, the ruins of Great Zimbabwe.  And an ancient dog head bead:

Egyptian/Phoenician Glass Dog Head Bead, 6th-4th century BC[539x381] from r/ArtefactPorn

this mouse is a roman flask

www.metmuseum.org
Gift of Renée E. and Robert A. Belfer, 2012

Fashioned by a Roman craftsman in the third century A.D., this graceful glass flask is unusual for several reasons.  It's a mouse, for one thing, with the flask's neck placed to serve as the tail.  It's cobalt blue.  Last but not least, it's embellished with an applied linear detail we currently call "snake-thread."  Read more about this piece here.  And if, like me, you were wondering "Which emperors were there in the third century A.D.?"  maybe this will help.

chicken of peace

thanks wikimedia commons (PD)

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" That's the King James version of the German verse above, Psalm 133:1.  This painted window, part of a larger one featuring the reforming theologian Johannes Brenz,  is found at the Evangelical Lutheran church of Ravensburg, Germany.  The church has a page (in German only, alas) on its history.  I've been looking for any specific tie between this verse and the hen with her egg, and the best I can do is suggest that just as the hen shelters her egg, so may we all shelter under divine protection together.  The window dates from the 19th century and seems to have been designed by Gustav Konig.

half a bunny, seattle art fair

i took these

These cast-glass rabbit fragments - you could say they were rabbits in process - are by Heidi Schwegler,  represented by Upfor Gallery (Portland OR).

Here's a closer look.