⁷⁄₈ in. (2.2 cm.) wide

Paul Julius Arndt (1865-1937), Munich.
Giorgio Sangiorgi (1886-1965), Rome, acquired and brought to Switzerland, late 1930s; thence by continuous descent to the current owner.

J. Boardman and C. Wagner, Masterpieces in Miniature: Engraved Gems from Prehistory to the Present, London, 2018, p. 262, no. 246.

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Lot Essay

This solid gold ring has a thin oval bezel, beveled on its underside, and a plain hoop, slightly rounded on the interior and exterior. It is engraved with a nude Eros, his right heal raised, drawing his bow. The groundline and his wings are engraved in the tremolo technique, which is a fine zigzag pattern made by rocking a curved chisel point back and forth over the surface. Sangiorgi considered this to be from Magna Graecia, as do Boardman and Wagner (op. cit.). For the subject, compare pls. XIV, 7 and 8 in A. Furtwängler, Die Antike Gemmen.