LOT 0228

Western Asiatic Amethyst Bead Necklace with Gold Beads

CIRCA 4TH-2ND CENTURY B.C.

20 3/4 in. (69.6 grams, 52.5 cm).

A designer necklace composed of forty amethyst beads of various shapes and six gold spheres, decorated with granulation and spirals, forming opposed pelta patterns; with later openwork clasp.

Acquired on European art market, 1990s.
Private collection of Mr K.A., France.
with Kallos Gallery, London.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.13012-246749.

Cf. Marshall, F.H., Catalogue of the Jewellery, Greek, Etruscan and Roman, in the Department of Antiquities, British Museum, London, 1911.no.2044, for a necklace of similar gold spheres.

Amethyst was widely used in Graeco-Roman Egypt. We know that the amethyst mines of Abu Diyeiba, near Semna, were in use from the time of Ptolemy VI through to the Roman era. Pliny says that Indian amethysts were the best, but he also refers to amethysts from Egypt. The Egyptian amethysts are typically flawed and of a pale, almost pink, hue. They were seldom set in gold and were most usually made into beads. Ptolemaic and Roman inscriptions and artefacts have been found at amethyst mines in Egypt’s eastern deserts.