LOT 0253

Achaemenid Elaborate Gold Earring

CIRCA 5TH CENTURY B.C.

2 in. (13.55 grams, 51 mm).

Crescent plaque with granulated inner borders and radiating triangles of granulation surrounded by a band of nineteen spheres, representing pomegranates, each with a filigree collar above and below, the outer band consisting of smaller spheres with a granulated pyramidal finial, at the centre a teardrop-shaped garnet cabochon set in a cell with a granulated border flanked by spirals.

Ex David Lindhal, London, UK, in the 1990s.
From a privately held London, UK, collection from the 1980s-1990s.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13267-253966.

See very similar earrings in the Metropolitan Museum, accession no. 1995.180a,b; Schmidt, E.F., Persepolis I, Structures, Reliefs, Inscriptions, Chicago, 1953; Schmidt, E.F., Persepolis II, Contents of the Treasury and other discoveries, Chicago, 1957, pl.44 no.27; Ogden, J.M., Gold Jewellery in Ptolemaic, Roman and Byzantine Egypt, In two volumes, Volume 2 – Figures, Durham, 1990; Ogden, J. and Williams, D., Greek Gold Jewelry of The Classical World, New York, 1994.

Fruits were generally considered to be a symbol of sensuality, temptation and fertility; the giving and accepting of fruit may be regarded as a symbolic sexual act, or at least a prelude to marriage. It follows naturally that the pomegranate, with its innumerable fleshy seeds symbolising life and fecundity, was an attribute of Aphrodite.