The Fragments Collection
Fragments of the Ancient World, Recast in Gold
Solid gold pendants reproduced from broken artifacts of the ancient world, each cast with its surviving edges intact.
In the galleries of the great museums, beyond the famous statues and celebrated friezes, there are cases filled with broken things.
These are the fragments: objects that survived not because they were whole, but because the earth held them, and time, for once, let them through.
The Fragments collection casts five of these survivors in solid gold.
Behind the collection
The Fragments Collection Began at the Louvre
The personal story behind Common Era's Fragments Collection: a snowy day at the Louvre, an eight-month-old reaching for the Three Graces, and a thread through two thousand years.
Related Works: Esoterica
Drawn from Roman, Greek and Egyptian symbols, these are pieces to protect and inspire.
In the galleries of the great museums of the world, between the famous statues and the celebrated friezes, there are cases full of broken things. A shard of marble. A torn edge of gold leaf. A piece of relief with half its figures missing.
These are the fragments: the objects that survived not because they were grand enough to be preserved, but because the earth held them, and time, for once, was careless enough to let them through.
The Fragments collection casts five of these survivors in solid gold. A broken Ionic column, its shaft crumbling into raw stone. A dog carved on a funerary stele, still seated, still waiting. Two lovers caught in a moment that needs no translation. The Three Graces, three figures still recognizable in their togetherness. An Orphic tablet, a map for the soul carried into the next world.
Each piece preserves its broken edges exactly as found. These are not reproductions of perfect things. They are fragments of what survived, ancient-style jewelry carrying two thousand years of ordinary human life in solid gold.
