Dress with ancient jewelry

“This dress, constructed of a subtle gold silk and trimmed in fur at the wrists and hem, was designed for Mildred Pitcairn—probably by her husband, Raymond—in the late 1920s. The seamstress embroidered the shoulders and bodice with ancient beads and a gold medallion. Fondly known to Pitcairn family members as the ‘King Tut’ dress, it was designed during a wave of ‘Egyptomania’ following the 1922 discovery of King Tutankhamun's tomb. In this photograph, one of their great-granddaughters models the dress in connection with a private event in 1987 at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

A striking gold medallion dating to the Byzantine period (perhaps 4th-7th century CE) takes the central position on the chest. The medallion, made in the eastern Mediterranean (perhaps Syria or Lebanon), may have been repurposed from a larger piece of jewelry such as a bracelet or armlet. The scene represents a procession of Dionysos, the ancient Greek god of wine, through North Africa. Silenus, a companion of Dionysos, is depicted reclining backwards on a camel in a drunken state. He wears a crown of grapevines.” (Jennifer Wegner, label text, “Sacred Adornment: Jewelry as Belief in Ancient Egypt”)