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Details
LOT 1114
Byzantine Bronze Ring with Inscriptions
11TH CENTURY A.D.
7/8 in. (5.79 grams, 23.02 mm overall, 19.43 mm internal diameter (approximate size British T, USA 9 1/2, Europe 21.26, Japan 20)).
Flat-section hoop with incuse foliate designs on each of the shoulders, oval bezel with inscription in two lines: 'ΙΗX ΗΝΑ' = Ἰη[σοῦς] Χ[ριστός] H N[I]KA' = Jesus Christ and the Victory. [No Reserve]
Provenance
Acquired on the UK and EU art market before 2000.
From the private collection of a Surrey, UK, gentleman.
Literature
Cf. Đurović, I., Средњовековни накит из збирки Народног музеја Крагујевац (Medieval jewelry from the collections of the National Museum Kragujevac, in Serbian), Крагујевац, 2012, fig.60, for the type.
Footnotes
In this category of rings, the oval hoop gradually widens into a full shoulder and a massive, flattened bezel. The bezel is an ellipsoidal field, decorated with a dedicatory inscription to Christ. The letters are roughly engraved. This ring is likely to have come from a Byzantine-era provincial Balkan workshop.
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