Squat body with a short trumpet-shaped neck with rolled rim, applied openwork gallery encircling the neck. 59.8 grams, 73 mm wide



From an important London, UK, collection 1980-2020.

Such jars, with applied trails, are commonly found in the Near East and Egypt. One trail was wound once horizontally around the undercurve of the mouth; another was applied in a large pad to shoulder and then formed into wavy zigzag patterns.

Piriform in profile with a narrow neck and flared mouth with a chamfered rim, dimple base. 949 grams, 29.1 cm



From the Xavier Guerrand-Hermès private collection. with Artcurial, Paris, 25 March 2014, no.39. Private collection, London, UK. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12959-245241.

On ancient glass, iridescence is the soft play of colour that develops as the surface ages and becomes silica-rich. Minute layers form over time and break light into shifting blues, greens and golds. It is not a modern finish but something time has drawn out of the material itself, so the pattern and palette are unique to each piece. Collectors prize good, stable iridescence because it lifts the form: ribs read more crisply, profiles glow, and simple vessels take on depth and movement. Museums now tend to preserve these surfaces rather than polish them away, recognising both their beauty and what they tell us about an object’s long life (though it is not, by itself, a dating test). For display, iridescent glass performs brilliantly under gentle, directional light, where the colours “turn” as the vessel is moved. Well-preserved, even iridescence of this quality is not common and adds materially to the presence and desirability of the piece.

Matched pair, each comprising a tubular shank with hook-and-eye closure, free-running dangle with pearl bead and granule cluster below. 3.94 grams total, 50 mm each



Private collection, 1990s-early 2000s. with Gorny and Mosch, Munich, 14 December 2010, no.160. Accompanied by copies of the Gorny and Mosch catalogue pages.

With a hollow spherical body decorated with slightly concave petals radiating from each end, separated by a central grooved band; one end with a tapering funnel marked by horizontal grooves, the other with a short tapering neck and a wide rim. 356 grams, 29.5 cm



Old Austrian private collection, 1980s. Accompanied by a copy of a nine-page examination report number 154/2026 by Dr habil Mikhail Treister. Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12905-242699.

Comparable instruments, usually called clepsydra in Greek and infundibulum in Latin, were in use in the 5th – first half of the 4th centuries B.C. A total of 13 such objects, or clepsydra, are known, including two of the unknown origin), represented by the finds both from Central (Lazio) and South (Campania, Calabria and Basilicata) Italy, Illyria (Apollonia) and Central Greece (Boeotia, Phocis) (all made of bronze), from the Taman peninsula in the North Pontic area, a fragmented one – from the Ulyap kurgan necropolis in the Trans-Kuban region and a silver piece from an aristocratic Thracian burial in the Plovdiv region. A distinctive feature of all these metal objects is the combination of a narrow vertical tube, at the lower end turning into a container with holes in the bottom.

Integral flat bezel with inset green emerald. 1.22 grams, 13.23 mm overall, 10.74 mm internal diameter



Private English collection, formed between the late 1970s and early 1990s. Private collection, UK.

Featuring three intaglios: on the left, a carnelian intaglio of Minerva holding a winged figure of Victory in her hand, shield and spear on the field; at the centre, a green plasma intaglio of Omphale with club and lionskin; at the far right, a carnelian intaglio of a cupid stirring a bucket with a stick, a rare motif; set in a later Georgian-style gold ring. 8.92 grams, 25.35 mm overall, 19.62 x 17.86 mm internal diameter (approximate size British O 1/2, USA 7 1/4, Europe 15.61, Japan 15)



Acquired on the European art market. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13364-257949.

Gems decorated with depictions of main deities of the Roman pantheon include gems with portraits of Jupiter or Jupiter Nikephoros, goddess Athena-Minerva or Minerva Romae, patron of Rome, Mars as Mars Ultor or Victor Tropaeophoros, and Victoria, goddess of victory.

Comprising a heavy facetted hoop and a wide rectangular bezel set with a tall intaglio of goddess Fortuna or Concordia, standing and holding a cornucopia, and a rudder. 25.07 grams, 23.40 mm overall, 18.18 x 12.80 mm internal diameter (approximate size British H, USA 3 3/4, Europe 6.18, Japan 6)



Acquired on the European art market. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13340-257983.

The ring belongs to type VI, Variant 1, of the Ruseva-Slokoska classification. These rings, typical of the 3rd century, were often decorated with the image of the Goddess Concordia. Sometimes they show an image of the clasped hands, or bear the inscription HOMONO (Latin), from the Greek omonoa (Concordia = Concord).

Comprising a thick hoop expanding at the shoulders, the bezel with a standing hedgehog on a baseline with detailed spines. 7.53 grams, 20.12 mm overall, 15.03 mm internal diameter (approximate size British F 1/2, USA 3, Europe 4.3, Japan 4)



Private collection, 1990s-early 2000s.

An oval intaglio depicting Mithras, a snake and a dog killing a bull, six stars on the field; set in a later gold ring; supplied with a museum-quality impression. 9.93 grams, 23.61 mm overall, 18.88 mm internal diameter (approximate size British R 1/2, USA 8 3/4, Europe 19.38, Japan 18)



English private collection. Reportedly acquired several decades ago in Covent Garden, London, still mounted in its original, heavily corroded iron ring; removed from this setting and remounted in a gold ring in recent years by the owner, a commercial airline pilot. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13325-28218.

The interpretation of the Mithraic tauroctony has long been the subject of scholarly debate. The Belgian historian of religions and orientalist Franz Cumont (1868–1947) was the first to propose that the scene should be understood as an astral allegory rather than a purely mythological episode. More recently, David Ulansey developed this hypothesis by interpreting the tauroctony as a symbolic representation of the precession of the equinoxes. In his reading, Mithras—identified with the constellation Perseus—embodies the supreme cosmic power capable of moving the sphere of the fixed stars, while the slaying of the bull symbolises the transition from one cosmic age to another, expressing Mithras' dominion over the celestial order itself.

Hollow-formed and widening at the shoulders to a high elliptical bezel set with a black and white banded glass intaglio imitating striped sardonyx, depicting a running boar in profile on a baseline; Greek letters KΠ on the surface under the boar; supplied with a museum-quality impression. 1.93 grams, 22.40 mm overall, 15.77 mm internal diameter (approximate size British J, USA 4 3/4, Europe 8.69, Japan 8)



Ex private collection, Contessa L.G., since the 1980s. Private collection, acquired in 1997.

The motif and style, a running boar with a tube-like body, seem to fit into Boardman's Wyndham Cook Group, and could be ascribed to the Graeco-Persian period, despite the fact that the gemstone was later incorporated into a Roman ring.

Comprising a hollow-form round-section hoop widening towards the shoulders, set with a table-cut garnet or paste with foil backing, polished. 1.55 grams, 21.78 mm overall, 15.63 x 14.16 mm internal diameter (approximate size British H 1/2, USA 4, Europe 6.81, Japan 6)



From the old family collection of a West Country, UK, lady; acquired by descent from her grandfather circa 2001.

The ring belongs to variant 3, type 1, of the Slokovska classification. The type of ring is characteristic of the Early Imperial Age. Similar rings with the same typology of gemstones have also been found in Kerch.

With slender hoop and integral cell bezel, inset amethyst cabochon. 1.34 grams, 17.24 mm overall, 10.57 x 11.34 mm internal diameter



Ex German art market, 2000s. Acquired from an EU collector living in London. From the collection of a Surrey, UK, gentleman.