AN EAST GREEK GILT SILVER ROUNDEL

HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 3RD-1ST CENTURY B.C.

Details

AN EAST GREEK GILT SILVER ROUNDEL
HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 3RD-1ST CENTURY B.C.
Raised from a single thick sheet, fashioned in high relief repoussé with an eagle at the center, naturalistically depicted in a three-quarter frontal pose to the right, its head turned out, gripping Zeus' winged thunderbolt in its talons, with finely incised details for the feathers on the body, wings and tail, the pointed beak downturned, the bulging eyes recessed at their pupils, perhaps for now-missing inlays, the thunderbolt formed of five long stalks, the central with spiral striping, bound by a central band from which emerge outstretched wings above and below, the rocky outcrop behind enhanced with punched and incised trees, rosettes and florals, encircled by a raised border, preserving rivets along the edge in regular intervals
4 3/8 in. (11.1 cm.) high

Provenance

Private Collection, London, 1993.
with Phoenix Ancient Art, Geneva, 1998.
Private Collection, Switzerland.
with Phoenix Ancient Art, Geneva, 2006 (Catalogue 1, no. 46).

Exhibited

Houston Museum of Natural Science, Gold! Natural Treasure, Cultural Obsession, 18 February - 18 September 2005.

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Lot Essay

The rivets along the border of this roundel indicate that it originally served either as a phalera, or, more likely, as the emblema of a vessel. The style of the raised border can be seen on separately-made vessel emblemae from the Hellenistic period. See, for example, the emblema with an acanthus floral, no. 92 in von Bothmer, A Greek and Roman Treasury, and the emblema with a satyr and a nymph on a dish, no. 53 in Oliver, Silver for the Gods. The placement of such emblemae on the interior of a dish designates it as a show-vessel, as its basic function would be compromised. For a gilt silver phalera with perforations near the border see no. 106, p. 176 in Marazov, ed., Ancient Gold: The Wealth of the Thracians.

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