CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.

Details

A ROMAN GARNET RINGSTONE WITH A FEAMLE HEAD SIGNED BY EUDOSIOS
CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.
3/4 in. (1.9 cm.) long

Provenance

Giorgio Sangiorgi (1886-1965), Rome, acquired and brought to Switzerland, late 1930s; thence by continuous descent to the current owner.

Literature

J. Boardman and C. Wagner, Masterpieces in Miniature: Engraved Gems from Prehistory to the Present, London, 2018, p. 174, no. 160.

Special notice

This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.

Conditions of sale

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Claudio Corsi Specialist, Head of Department

ccorsi@christies.com +44 (0) 20 7389 2607

Lot Essay

The oval stone with convex back is deeply carved with the head of a woman, her luxuriously curling hair falling onto her shoulder and wearing the large foliate and berried wreath of a maenad, with a long nose, full lips and large eyes with curving brow. She also appears to be wearing a twisted necklace with a central ring and pin(?). Inscribed in Greek EY*O*IOY, 'of Eudosios', which is perhaps a signature but, as Boardman and Wagner note, is otherwise unknown. For some slightly earlier, but stylistically similar, garnets with meanads cf. D. Plantzoz, Hellenistic Engraved Gems, Oxford, 1999, pls 60-61, nos. 407-423, also pl, 58, no. 387 for similar rendering of the eye.

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