Etruscan Carnelian Scarab with Sphinx in Later Victorian Silver Mount

A collection of necklace pendants and dress appliques comprising: a hollow bead with a truncated conical shape, featuring appliques for precious stone inserts; three studs with a hemispherical dome; a pair of appliques decorated with rosette and mask-shaped elements; a pendant in the form of a myrtle berry, and another fragment. 11.19 grams total, 10-31 mm



Acquired by a Swiss family in the mid-1980s to late 1990s, thence by descent. Private collection, Switzerland, since the late 1990s. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.13023-246772.

The iconography of Hellenistic jewellery often incorporates vegetal motifs, reflecting the Greek value of fertility. With its heavy incorporation of plant motifs, including tendrils, blossoms, and a bursting pomegranate, the diadem design symbolises a woman’s reproductive potential and alludes to the female wearer’s social responsibility to produce offspring.

Hollow-formed with scaphoid headdress, long hair hanging behind the shoulders, heavy peplos dress extending to the floor with splayed hem and feet visible beneath; left hand held straight at the thigh, right hand in a fist between the breasts; mounted on a custom-made stand. 6.7 kg total, 57 cm including stand



Swiss private collection, assembled in the 1970s-1980s. with Galerie Serodine, Ascona, Switzerland, 1993. Collection of Dr E.N., Zug, acquired in 1995. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12858-241755.

One of the most typical 6th-century B.C. terracotta female figurines was that of a standing or seated woman wearing a chiton tunic and a himation over it. It was a votive figure offered to the shrines or temples, usually representing the goddess Demeter. The headgear, polos, was an element usually identifying the goddess Demeter or her daughter Persephone. Attica was one of the principal centres of figurine production, but Corinth continued to produce solid standing or seated females with moulded fronts and flat backs.

Broad and squat with low foot, inturned rim; chipped; old collector's record card with label to reverse '0892'. 29.4 grams, 53 mm wide



From the collection of the late Bernard C. Pickard, Hampshire, UK, the owner of Bernard C. Pickard Antiquities, which closed in 1987, he had been collecting since the mid 1950s. Accompanied by a typed information display card.

Bernard Pickard was a close friend of Richard Hattatt, the renowned author of several books on ancient brooches. Hattatt acknowledges in his first book, Ancient & Romano-British Brooches, published in 1982, that Mr Pickard first aroused his interest in brooches and inspired him in writing his books during his retirement. Mr Pickard also wrote the foreword to the section on Roman animal brooches, op. cit. p.158-160.