Lot 305
305
A DARK AGE EUROPEAN GOLD AND SILVER PIN, the gold head with hemispherical sheet gold upper surface decorated with a central oval garnet in box-setting surrounded by eight other box-settings to take similar stones (now missing), with four beaded wire scrolls and border, the lower hemisphere of scrolling openwork gold wire, attached to a silver tapering six-sided shaft with niello inscription:

Details
A DARK AGE EUROPEAN GOLD AND SILVER PIN, the gold head with hemispherical sheet gold upper surface decorated with a central oval garnet in box-setting surrounded by eight other box-settings to take similar stones (now missing), with four beaded wire scrolls and border, the lower hemisphere of scrolling openwork gold wire, attached to a silver tapering six-sided shaft with niello inscription:
VIVAS INDO/SEMPER/GRATIOSA
circa 7th Century A.D.
3¼in. (8.3cm.) high

Lot Essay

The openwork hemispherical top is a well-known form in Lombardic and some other Dark Age jewellery in the 6th-7th Century A.D., most typically on earrings and ring bezels, cf.. lot 331. The inscription probably reads VIVAS IN DEO ...

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