Early Byzantine Gold Ring with Pearls and Later Cloisonne Enamelled Figure

Discoid with central void and portion of the shank embedded; inscribed with Greek characters '+AEB Φ BEPETEAI'. 2.66 grams, 18 mm



Acquired on the London, UK, art market in the 1990s. From a gentleman's private collection.

Similar objects could have been manufactured to look like spindle whorls, while they were in fact used as beads and/or amulets. The current evidence may suggest that these items were burial goods for females. They are sometimes seen incised with Greek letters and symbols that seem to suggest a cryptic onomata barbara formula. In this context, they can be viewed as mystical objects with the function of transmitting a message to the Other World, and the sheer mass of letters intended to convey the idea of an authoritative communication inaccessible to ordinary human being.

Piriform body with vertical bands of pellets and roundels, knop finial, tiered and domed filler-hole, intended to be filled with explosive liquid and wick, used as a hand grenade. 755 grams, 15 cm



From a specialist collection of militaria, London, UK, collected 1990s onwards.

Apart from the use of siphons or manual flame-throwers called cheirosiphona, special corps of Roman soldiers employed terracotta grenades, in the form of small jars, abundantly evidenced in archaeological excavations. They were called μεσαία kακαβιά or κυτροκακάβια where the former had a bulbous shape and the latter a more cylindrical form.

Flat-section ring with four round holes and attachment fittings for four substantial chains, forming a polycandelon chandelier with multiple candles. 528 grams, 27 cm hanging height



Ex Surrey, UK, collection of a gentleman, 1960-2000s.

In 563 A.D., 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.’