Details

LOT 0430

Stuart Period Gold Signet Ring with Roman Gemstone

MID-LATE 17TH CENTURY AD AND EARLIER

1 3/4" (13.72 grams, 22.51mm overall, 18.20mm internal diameter (approximate size British O 1/2, USA 7 1/4, Europe 15.61, Japan 15)).

A superb quality gold signet ring with slender hoop and ellipsoid bezel; the shoulders modelled in relief with black enamelled scrolled detailing continuing to the scooped sides of the bezel and onto a scrolled cross motif to the underside; the bezel a cell with raised rim and inset Roman, 2nd century AD, nicolo intaglio of a horse advancing on a baseline with head lowered.

Provenance

Property of a Harwich, UK, lady; previously with an Aldeburgh, Suffolk, UK, gentleman; formerly with an Aldeburgh lady, part of her old jewellery collection since the early 1960s; accompanied by an expertise by Dr. Raffaele D’Amato and an independent specialist report and valuation by graduate gemmologist and jewellery expert Anna Rogers, GIA GG, BA, Gem-A, ref. no. 174779/24/03/2021; this lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no.10649-174779.

Literature

Cf. Chadour, A.B., Rings. The Alice and Louis Koch Collection, volume I, Leeds, 1994, items 787,790, for type, and 321, for the gemstone; Frumusa, G., ‘Gemme inedite da scavo della Valle d’Aosta’ in Pallas, 83, 2010, pp.35-54; Scarisbrick, D., Rings, jewelry of power, love and loyalty, London, 2013, figs.253,254, for the type; see also Provincia di Venezia, Piccolo Mondo Antico, la collezione glittica Torcellana, Venezia, 2014.

Footnotes

The style and technique of the ring seem to be English and date to the mid-late 17th century. The theme of a horse grazing was widely employed on Roman gemstones (see Chadour, 1994, nn.146,403; Frumusa, 2010, fig.2), and the nicolo was often employed in rings of the 2nd century AD (Chadour, 1994, nn.289, 292-293, 298-300). A similar engraving from a 2nd century gemstone inserted to a later ring is visible in the Koch collection (Chadour, 1994, n.321). The horse motif had various associations, as the animal was central to almost every aspect of the Roman world: agriculture, war, travel and medicine.
The horse was sacred to Poseidon-Neptune, the god of the sea. Wearing a ring with an incised stallion could bring the owner elements of divine prophylaxis.

CONDITION