Bead and reel

Roman bead and reel on a fragment of the entablature from the courtyard colonnades of the Sanctuary of Jupiter Heliopolitanus, Baalbek, Lebanon, 2nd century AD, limestone, Pergamon Museum, Berlin

Bead and reel is an architectural motif, usually found in sculptures, moldings and numismatics. It consists in a thin line where beadlike elements alternate with cylindrical ones.[1]^[2] It is found throughout the modern Western world in architectural detail, particularly on Greek/Roman style buildings, wallpaper borders, and interior moulding design. It is often used in combination with the egg-and-dart motif.^[3]

According to art historian

Persia, Egypt and the Hellenistic world, and as far as India, where it can be found on the abacus part of some of the Pillars of Ashoka or the Pataliputra capital. ^[4]

Gallery

Ancient Greek bead and reel on the base of a capital from the ruins of the Temple of Apollo at Didyma, Turkey, unknown architect or sculptor, c.300-150 BC^[5]
Bead and reel at the base of the capital of a Pillar of Ashoka, in Vaishali, India, unknown architect or sculptor, 3rd century BC
Allahabad pillar, with two lotuses framing a "flame palmette" surrounded by small rosette flowers, over a band of bead and reel, 3rd century BC, unknown material, Allahabad Museum, Prayagraj
, India

Gold 20-
Cabinet des Médailles
, Paris
Ancient Greek Ionic capital with bead and reel, from the Temple of Artemis Leukophryene at Magnesia on the Maeander, 2nd century BC, unknown type of stone, Pergamon Museum, Berlin
Islamic bead and reel on a cornice, circa 705-715, limestone, Pergamon Museum
Renaissance entablature with bead and reel of the Lescot Wing of the Louvre Palace, Paris, by Pierre Lescot, 1546-1551^[6]
Art Nouveau frieze with festoons, bordered at the top by a bead and reel strip, in Calea Dorobanților no. 50A, Bucharest, Romania, unknown architect or sculptor, c.1900
Art Deco bead and reel on Piața Mihail Kogălniceanu no. 1, Bucharest, unknown architect or sculptor, c.1930

^ "bead and reel". Glossary Medieval Art and Architecture. pitt.edu. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
^ "Bead and Reel". artlandia.com. Retrieved 12 August 2016.
^ Sturgis, Russell (1901). A Dictionary of Architecture and Building, Volume I. Macmillan. p. 256.
^ John Boardman, "The Origins of Indian Stone Architecture", p.16 and others [1]
^ "Temple of Apollo at Didyma". brown.edu. Retrieved 6 March 2024.
^ John Summerson (1963). The Classical Language of Architecture. London and New York City: Thames & Hudson. p. 76.