A Suite of Hellenistic Greek Gold Jewelry, circa late 4th/early 3rd century B.C.

VAT reduced rate

Estimate

80,000 - 120,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

comprising a pair of Tarantine lion-head earrings, each with finely modelled heads in sheet gold, the collars between the head and the twisted hoop neatly decorated in filigree in plain wires and beaded spiral and spiral-beaded wires, the hoops constructed in hollow sheet-gold tubes twisted together, the lions' eyes probably originally enamelled; a Tarantine (or South Italian) gold chain necklace with lion-head terminals, the figure-of-eight loop-in-loop chain terminating in lion heads with flowing manes, the collars between the heads and chains made of sheet gold decorated with plain, twisted and beaded wires; and a gold ring expertly hammered from a single piece of gold, the broad near circular bezel decorated in fine punches with a standing figure of Eros holding a palm branch (?) in his right hand.

Heights of earrings 2.9 and 2.8 cm.; length of necklace 42 cm.; ring bezel 2.1 by 2 cm.

private collection, Switzerland, the earrings and necklace acquired in 1971, the ring in 1972

by descent to the present owner

For a discussion of the lion earring type see E. M. De Juliis, ed., Gli ori di Taranto in età ellenistica. Milan, 1984, pp. 181-184.

For a very similar chain necklace with lion-head terminals in the Museo Archeologico Taranto see De Juliis, op. cit., p. 216, no. 149.

For examples of the ring type from Taranto see De Juliis, op. cit., pp. 288-290; for a discussion of the manufacture and thin bezel form see J. Ogden, Jewelry Technology in the Ancient and Medieval World, 2024, p. 89. The fine design of the ring was not intended to be seen in reverse, suggesting this was not a seal, but, as with some other categories of Hellenistic gold rings with Eros, a love or fertility gift to a woman, perhaps even a betrothal ring.