Roman Gold Beetle Type Earrings

1ST-2ND CENTURY A.D.

1 5/8 in. (4.48 grams total, 40 mm each).

Matched pair, each a hooked pin with a large hollow-formed domed panel and a smaller one above, dangle beneath with two iridescent glass beads.

Provenance

Private collection, USA and Switzerland, acquired in the late 1980s-early 1990s; thence by descent.

Literature

Cf. for the upper part of similar earrings Marshall, F.H., Catalogue of the Jewellery, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman, in the department of antiquities, British Museum, London, 1911, pl.LIV, nos.2616.

Footnotes

The pair of gold earrings is in the form of a very broad "boat-shaped" crescent. The back was often filled in with a concave plate of gold, and a lenticular disc above masked the junction of the S-shaped wire hook with the body of the earring. They are typical of the 1st -2nd century A.D.

CONDITION

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LOT 0161