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LOT 0175
Byzantine Gold Ring with Foliate Motifs
CIRCA 11TH-12TH CENTURY A.D.
3/4 in. (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)).
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.
ProvenanceAcquired from London galleries during the 1990s.
From the jewellery collection of a London, UK, gentleman.
Cf. Đurović, I., Medieval Jewelry from the collections of the Kragujevac National Museum, Kragujevac, 2012, fig.12, p.111, for similar ring.
FootnotesSome 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).
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LOT 0175
Byzantine Gold Ring with Foliate Motifs
Estimate £1,200 - 1,700€1,390 - 1,970 (for guidance only)$1,620 - 2,300 (for guidance only)
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Byzantine Gold Bead with Granular Decoration
Circa 6th-10th century A.D.Estimate: £150 - 200 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £75
Hollow-formed, decorated with a central filigree band from which granulated triangles radiate, alternating with filigree circular motifs; piercing occluded. 2.12 grams, 12 mm
From the property of late Mr SM, London, UK, 1969-1999. -
Byzantine Gold Fretwork Pendant
6th-10th century A.D.Estimate: £200 - 300 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £100
Capsule pendant with domed ends and openwork filigree band between, ribbed suspension tube. 0.73 grams, 14 mm
From a late Japanese specialist collector, 1970-2000s. -
Large Byzantine Hanging Bronze Polycandelon
Circa 8th-10th century A.D.Estimate: £1,800 - 2,400 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £900
Flat-section ring with nine round holes and attachment fittings for three substantial chains with suspension hook, forming a polycandelon chandelier with multiple candles. 1.52 kg, 68 cm hanging height
Ex Surrey, UK, collection of a gentleman, 1960-2000s. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12111-217545.
In 563 AD, Paul the Silentiary visited Hagia Sophia in Constantinople and described the wondrous lighting effects, ‘Thus is everything clothed in beauty…no words are sufficient to describe the illumination in the evening: you might say that some nocturnal sun filled the majestic church with light.’ The church was lit by polycandela, an early type of candelabra that held glass oil lamps rather than candles. The lamps were either conical or shaped like round bowls with an elongated stem attached beneath. An effective and very atmospheric source of lighting, polycandela required considerable skill in casting and glasswork. Amidst the burning of incense and the chanting of prayers, the flickering light must have helped to inspire pious devotion. Contemporaries certainly attest to this feeling and among the surviving accounts, that of Arculf, Bishop of Gaul, is particularly affecting. In 670 he went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem and visited the Church of the Ascension, ‘…to the customary light of the eight lamps…on the night of the feast of the Lord’s Ascension it is usual to add innumerable other lamps; and under the terrible and wondrous gleaming of these, pouring out copiously through the shutters of the windows, all Mount Olivet seems not alone to be illuminated, but even to be on fire, and the whole city, situated on the lower ground nearby, seems to be lit up.’
