LOT 0359

Renaissance Agate Cameo of Two Owls in Gold Ring

ITALY, 17TH CENTURY A.D.

1 in. (12.74 grams, 24.90 mm overall, 17.00 mm internal diameter (approximate size British M 1/2, USA 6 1/4, Europe 13.09, Japan 12)).

Comprising a D-section hoop expanding towards the open-backed setting set with a large brown agate intaglio modelled as two conjoined standing owls, the one at the front facing, and the other looking to the right, intricate feather and facial details, the cameo with a loss on the right-hand side, with the ring incorporating a fine gold repair.

Acquired on the European art market.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13318-257961.

See Sotheby’s Bond Street, 06 December 2016, Old Master Sculpture and Works of Art Including Highlights from the Reinhold Hofstätter Collection, London, 2016, lot 62, for similar.

Even in the Italian Renaissance, the owl, an ancient symbol of the goddess Athena, symbolised wisdom. The owl was also a symbol of the night and death, as is so eloquently illustrated in the 17th-century painting Vanité à la chouette in the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dijon, which depicts an owl sitting on a human skull next to an extinguished candle.