Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art

Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 159. A Roman Gold and Emerald Necklace, circa 2nd/3rd century A.D..

Property of an American Private Collector

A Roman Gold and Emerald Necklace, circa 2nd/3rd century A.D.

VAT reduced rate

Lot closes

July 5, 02:59 PM GMT

Estimate

5,000 - 8,000 GBP

Current Bid

18,000 GBP

18 Bids

Reserve met

Lot Details

Description

A Roman Gold and Emerald Necklace

circa 2nd/3rd century A.D.


composed of a loop-in-loop chain with large irregularly-cut emerald pendant, possibly added in the Byzantine period, the clasp of domed form with banded perimeter.

Length 38.2 cm.

Thomas P. Miller, executive assistant at The Cloisters, New York, acquired in Palermo in 1965

Dr. James D. Blackburn, Birmingham, Alabama, acquired from the above in 1990

then by descent to the present owner

Roman jewelry, in its simplicity and preference for the combination of gold with precious stones, often resembles modern Western jewelry more than its more elaborate Greek and Etruscan predecessors. Barbara Deppert-Lippitz notes that emeralds (Latin smaragdus) were particularly favored by the Romans and often left unworked (Ancient Gold Jewelry at the Dallas Museum of Art, Seattle, 1996, pp. 107-108). For a related necklace on a Romano-Egyptian encaustic mummy panel (dubbed by Petrie as the “jewelry girl” and now in the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh) see E. Doxiadis, The Mysterious Fayum Portraits From Ancient Egypt, London, 1995, no. 72, p. 206, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fayum-11.jpg). 

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