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Lot Essay
The solid gold hoop is flat on the interior, convex on the exterior, expanding towards the inward sloping shoulders. Set within the flat bezel is a dark red convex carnelian engraved with a profile head of Perseus. The hero wears a helmet in the form of a recumbent winged griffin. The helmet has a visor and lowered cheek pieces. Behind his head is a leaf-shaped spearhead.
According to Boardman and Wagner (op. cit., p. 125), Perseus' winged Cap of Darkness can take many forms, including, as here, a helmet with a griffin providing the requisite wings. On comparable gems and coins where he is shown wearing the griffin helmet, he is usually accompanied by a harpe (a type of sword with a hooked appendage near its tip), so the spearhead on the present example is unexpected (see L.J. Roccos, "Perseus," in LIMC, vol. VII, nos. 11-14 for comparable images on gems, and no. 18 for the subject on a coin of Philip V, King of Macedon from 221-179 B.C.). Closest to our gem is an example without an accompanying weapon, pl. XXVI, no. 15 in A. Furtwängler, Die antiken Gemmen.
According to Boardman and Wagner (op. cit., p. 125), Perseus' winged Cap of Darkness can take many forms, including, as here, a helmet with a griffin providing the requisite wings. On comparable gems and coins where he is shown wearing the griffin helmet, he is usually accompanied by a harpe (a type of sword with a hooked appendage near its tip), so the spearhead on the present example is unexpected (see L.J. Roccos, "Perseus," in LIMC, vol. VII, nos. 11-14 for comparable images on gems, and no. 18 for the subject on a coin of Philip V, King of Macedon from 221-179 B.C.). Closest to our gem is an example without an accompanying weapon, pl. XXVI, no. 15 in A. Furtwängler, Die antiken Gemmen.