Roman Gold Ring with Portrait Gemstone

Hollow-formed with short hair and a beret, wearing a paenula military cloak extending to the hips; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 110 grams total, 90 mm including stand



From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000. From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.

Telesphorus, dressed in the Gallo-Roman manner with the long hooded military cloak (folded on his back), was the subject of many votive statuettes in Roman Gaul. Son of Aesculapius, god of medicine, he certainly had a connection with the world of healing and medical care, and was associated with his sister Hygeia. He belonged to the Celtic pantheon and was spread to the East by the Galatians of Asia Minor. His cult then spread to the West, particularly in the Hadrianic period, as attested by his images found on the Wall at Birdoswald.

Modelled in the round on a trapezoidal plaque, the eagle gripping a lamb in its powerful claws, head raised and wings crossed; suspension loop absent. 8.53 grams, 27 mm



Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s. From the family collection of Mr S.A., Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection since the late 1990s.

Comprising four curved sherds of burnished redware with carinated profile and scrolled tendrils in low-relief with rosettes and palmettes; with old collector's card 'Fragments of same Samian Decorated Bowl. / La Graufesenque / Nero-Vespasian Period / Found Colchester'. 83 grams total, 13-15 cm



Found Colchester, Essex, UK. From the collection of a late East Anglian teacher and antiquarian who retired to the Isle of Wight in Hampshire, UK. He amassed a large collection of objects between the 1960s-1980s. Accompanied by an old handwritten catalogue information card.