Details

LOT 0982

Large Byzantine Inscribed Bronze Glove Ring with Swan

CIRCA 15TH CENTURY A.D.

1 in. (12.22 grams, 25.54 mm overall, 21.20 mm internal diameter (approximate size British X 1/2, USA 11 3/4, Europe 26.92, Japan 25)).

With facetted shoulders and octagonal bezel, central swan motif surrounded by enigmatic Greek text 'IOHMOK HΠ[.]IKO'. [No Reserve]

Provenance

Private collection formed since the 1940s.
UK art market.
Property of an Essex gentleman.

Literature

Cf. Chadour, A.B., Rings. The Alice and Louis Koch Collection, volume I, Leeds, 1994, items 599, 641, for type; Stanojev, N., Nekropolen aus dem 10.-15.Jahrhundert in der Vojvodina, Novi Sad, 1989, figs.158-161, 223-224, for the type.

Footnotes

Similar rings have been found in the area of Vojvodina, where the military and ecclesiastical presence of Byzantium was still strong until the 13th century. The signet ring shows a Greek inscription probably made by Slavonic people using Greek letters as an 'imitation' of earlier Eastern Roman rings.