Lot 8

Super Zoom

A GREEK SILVER, GOLD AND CARNELIAN SCARAB SWIVEL RING WITH LION AND BOAR FOREPARTS

ARCHAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 500 B.C.

Name: A GREEK SILVER, GOLD AND CARNELIAN SCARAB SWIVEL RING WITH LION AND BOAR FOREPARTS
Brand: ARCHAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 500 B.C.
Price: 8000.00 USD
Availability: SoldOut

Price Realised USD 10,080

Estimate

USD 10,000 - USD 15,000

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A GREEK SILVER, GOLD AND CARNELIAN SCARAB SWIVEL RING WITH LION AND BOAR FOREPARTS

ARCHAIC PERIOD, CIRCA 500 B.C.

Price Realised USD 10,080

1⁷⁄₈ in. (4.7 cm.) wide

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. 43, no. 36.

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Hannah Fox SolomonHead of Department, Specialist

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Lot Essay

This massive silver penannular hoop, beveled along its length and tapering at each end, is inserted into the gold bead terminals joined to the collar securing the scarab. The beetle is simply rendered and the underside is engraved with the forepart of a winged boar joined to the forepart of a lion, enclosed within a hatched border.

The oversized hoop could not have functioned as a finger ring. For similar examples found at Tharros, Sardinia, see nos. 1004-1007 in F.H. Marshall, Catalogue of the Finger Rings, Greek, Etruscan & Roman, in the Departments of Antiquities, British Museum. As Boardman and Wagner inform, “Both winged boar foreparts and conjoined animals are features of Archaic Greek gems.” See for example the forepart of a winged lion, no. 376 in Boardman, Archaic Greek Gems.