LOT 0508

Large Eastern Hellenistic Gold Earring Pair with Garnets

3RD-1ST CENTURY B.C.

2 1/4 - 2 3/8 in. (34.2 grams total, 56-60 mm).

Each a hollow-formed crescent with applied filigree borders, band of hollow-formed knops to the outer edge and piriform panel at each end with granulated border and inset garnet cabochon; below, a banded agate sphere with framing dentilled granulated collars, cluster of hollow bulbs with flanking cabochon garnets. [2]

Property of a London, UK, gentleman, pre-1990.
Ex London, UK, gallery.

Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11185-186691.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Cf. MET accession no. 95.15.203.204, for the type of composition and manufacture style, 2nd century B.C.; Ogden, J. and Williams, D., Greek Gold Jewelry of The Classical World, New York, 1994; Contestabile, H., ‘Hellenistic Jewelry & the Commoditization of Elite Greek Women’ in Berkeley Undergraduate Journal of Classics, 2(2), Berkeley, 2013, pp. 1-13, for discussion on the style; Quast, D., ‘Parthian and early Sassanian Earrings with garnet inlay’ in Le Archeologie di Marilli, miscellanea di studi in ricordo di Maria Maddalena Negro Ponzi Mancini, Alessandria, 2018, pp.123-128, figs.3,5, for other examples with garnet insert.

The boat-shaped central body is typical of old style Greek earrings connected with clusters of globe and is visible in the early Hellenistic jewellery from Taranto (Williams & Ogden, 1994, p.213), but the abundant use of filigree fits with examples from the Eastern Mediterranean area (Williams & Ogden, 1994, p.243).