Roman Gold Ring with Portrait Gemstone

Hollow-formed mount formed as a crescent with horse-head finial modelled with flying mane and mouth open; to the rear, a deep flared socket with dentilled rim. 106 grams, 63 mm



Acquired on the German art market, 1989-1995. with The Museum Gallery, 19 Bury Place, London, WC1A 2JB, 1998-2003. Property of a London based academic, 2003-present.

This is beautiful Roman workmanship, probably derived from Hellenistic prototypes, which finds comparisons in similar mounts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the British Museum. It could be a bed mount (for bed or triclinium) or a furniture element. It is also possible that it was a cart or chariot element.

Standing nude with both arms supporting a scallop shell, the hair dressed in the manner of a putto; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 38 grams total, 67 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.

Although inspired by statuettes of Eros, the representation is that of a body with a musculature of a mature man, with a well-shaped torso and strong pectorals. Probably of Gallo-Roman workmanship.

Comprising a pair of discoid appliqués with beaded rim and high-relief pelta (military shield) motif, one with the pelta surmounted by a kantharos with a laurel wreath above, the other with vegetal volutes. 6.60 grams total, 61-62 mm



Acquired in the early 1990s. From the collection of a London antiquarian. Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

The subject represented on these two appliqués is a crescentic military shield, the so-called pelta, associated in the late Roman iconography with the Amazon female warriors. Many shields of this typology were also represented on the pedestal of the Column of Arcadius in Constantinople (circa 400 A.D.) and seemed to be associated with the heavy cavalry of the Imperial Guard (D’Amato-Negin, 2017, p.252).