A PAIR OF GREEK GOLD AND AGATE EARRINGS

HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.

Details

A PAIR OF GREEK GOLD AND AGATE EARRINGS
HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.
Each surmounted with knopped finial, flanked by pair of knopped pins, beneath an oval box bezel, with granulated border, set with a banded agate, two circular bezels below, inlays now missing, each supporting a length of double loop-in-loop chain terminating with a ovoid banded agate bead, flanking an inverted tear-shaped box bezel, with granulated border, set with a banded agate, an amphora pendant suspended below from a hinged join, composed of a banded agate bead capped with gold shoulder and neck with 'wavy ribbon' handles, fluted gold body and cylindrical foot with band of filigree
3¼ in. (8.2 cm.) long (2)

Provenance

Private collection, Latvia, 1920s-1940s; thence by descent.

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Lot Essay

These earrings correspond to the disc and amphora type of the middle and late Hellenistic period. For another such pair cf. S. Walker and P. Higgs, Cleopatra of Egypt: from History to Myth, London, 2001, p. 94, no. 105 (British Museum no. GR 1904.7-6.1, Jewellery 2332-3). The large scale of the present lot, however, is very unusual.

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