CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.

Details

TWO ROMAN SARDONYX CAMEOS
CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.
26 mm. wide max.

Provenance

G. Sangiorgi collection (1886-1965), Rome.
Private collection, Monaco, 1970s; thence by descent.

Special notice

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Lot Essay

For another example of a sardonyx cameo showing Apollo's lyre composed of a tortoise shell as body and goat horns as arms cf. Beazley gem database no. 4.I.E.85; or D. Scarisbrick et al., The art of gem engraving : from Alexander the Great to Napoleon III, p. 358, no. 282. The lyre was often used to symbolise Apollo or the muse Terspichore.
For a similar cameo in yellow sard engraved with a sow walking on groundline, cf. J. Boardman, D. Scarisbrick, C. Wagner, E. Zwierlein-Diehl, The Marlborough Gems, 2009, no. 726.

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