Byzantine Bronze Trade Weight Collection

Domed sheet-gold pendant with filigree hoops and granulation, four cells each with a gemstone cabochon, lateral loops. 2.68 grams, 19 mm



From a late Japanese specialist collector, 1970-2000s.

Broad with basal disc, cream-glazed inner face with green detailing, sgraffito design of tulip flowers and hatched bands. 322 grams, 15.2 cm



From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000. From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.

Comprising a flat-section hoop with a starburst motif to the base; openwork shoulders and a square bezel with a pellet to each corner, the bezel engraved with foliate motifs. 3.65 grams, 19.99 mm overall, 18.00 mm internal diameter (approximate size British L, USA 5 3/4, Europe 11.24, Japan 10)



Acquired from London galleries during the 1990s. From the jewellery collection of a London, UK, gentleman.

Some rings from the Balkan territories of the Eastern Empire (for example the ring from Dobrača) bear a square thickened bezel engraved with schematic representations. What sets them apart are the widened shoulders emphasised by a plastic rib and the raised and flattened head, which places them in the group of rings which dates mainly to the 11th century (from the end of the 10th to the first decades of the 12th century).