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Details
LOT 0208
Byzantine Gold Marriage Ring with Busts
CIRCA 6TH-7TH CENTURY A.D.
1 in. (13.76 grams, 25.37 mm overall, 18.77 mm internal diameter (approximate size British Q, USA 8, Europe 17.49, Japan 16)).
D-section hoop with carination, flat chamfered shoulders each with an engraved cross moline within a wreath; trumpet-shaped bezel with two facing busts and processional cross between, the bodies with inset carnelian studs; legend 'OMONOIA' (harmony) below.
Provenance
From the collection of a late English gentleman, 1990s.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.13047-248619.
Literature
Cf. similar subject in a ring from Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession no.63.1555; see also The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Romans and Barbarians, Boston, 1976, p.179, no.202; Chadour, A.B., Rings. The Alice and Louis Koch Collection, volume I, Leeds, 1994, item 489, for type.
Footnotes
The marriage ring is one of the typologies in which figural decorations are frequently found. Generally speaking, marriage rings are engraved with a representation of a husband and wife, sometimes accompanied by Christ, and usually engraved with wishes for 'harmony, health and the grace of God'. Rings of this type had been used since the late 4th century A.D. and remained extremely popular in Byzantium in the 6th and 7th centuries.
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