Roman Green Glass Double Unguentarium

With barrel-shaped knops with collar beneath to the ends of the headplate and medially along the top edge; deep trapezoidal-section bow with median gusset and notch detailing; D-section footplate with chamfered sides open to one edge, its upper face of the bow with notched detailing; hinged pin to reverse. 15.3 grams, 54 mm



From a private Tyneside collection, formed since the early 2000s.

A matched pair, each a braided hoop with an applied shield-shaped disc, collar with a cluster of hollow spherical grapes with granule clusters below. 6.57 grams total, 42-44 mm



Acquired in 1992. Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection, since the late 1990s.

Each with a hollow-formed crescentic hoop, piriform plaque with inset glass panel and granulated border, hollow-bulb cluster beneath with three applied piriform plaques and granule finial. 9.26 grams total, 37-38 mm



Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s. Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection, since the late 1990s. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12393-226929.

As a result of the expansion of the Roman Empire, jewellery became more and more elaborate in its designs and materials used, such as precious and semi-precious gemstones. This pair of earrings represent a highly baroque evolution of the boat-shaped type, already visible in Etruscan jewellery and certainly in Roman jewellery, as demonstrated by the excavations of Herculaneum. Using the body of the boat-shaped earrings, the late Imperial artist added decorative clusters and applications of pearled borders and precious stones, according to the taste of Eastern Hellenism rooted for centuries in the provinces of the Black Sea and Roman Asia.