A GREEK CARNELIAN RINGSTONE WITH APOLLO KITHAROIDOS

HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND CENTURY B.C.

Details

A GREEK CARNELIAN RINGSTONE WITH APOLLO KITHAROIDOS
HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND CENTURY B.C.
¾ in. (2 cm.) long

Provenance

Thomas Howard, 21st Earl of Arundel (1586-1646), Arundel House, London; thence by descent to his wife, Aletheia Talbot Howard (1585-1654), Arundel House, London; thence by gift to her son, Henry Frederick Howard, 22nd Earl of Arundel (1608-1652), Arundel House, London; thence by descent to his son, Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk (1628-1684), Arundel House, London; thence by descent to his widow, Jane Bickerton Howard (1643-1693), Arundel House, London.
Henry Mordant, 2nd Earl of Peterborough (1621-1697), Drayton House, Northamptonshire, acquired from the above, circa 1690; thence by descent to his daughter, Lady Mary Mordant (1659-1705), Drayton House, Northamptonshire; thence by descent to her second husband, Sir John Germain (1650-1718), Drayton House, Northamptonshire; thence by descent to his second wife, Lady Elizabeth Germain (1680-1769), Knole House, Kent; thence by descent to her great-niece, Mary Beauclerk (1743-1812) on the occasion of her marriage to Lord Charles Spencer (1740-1820), 1762.
George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough (1739-1817), Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, acquired from the above, circa 1765; thence by descent to his son, George Spencer-Churchill, 5th Duke of Marlborough (1766-1840), Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire; thence by descent to his son, George Spencer-Churchill, 6th Duke of Marlborough (1793–1857), Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire; thence by descent to his son, John Winston Spencer-Churchill, 7th Duke of Marlborough (1822-1883), Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire.
The Marlborough Gems: Being a Collection of Works in Cameo and Intaglio Formed by George, Third Duke of Marlborough, Christie's, London, 28 June-1 July 1875, lot 51.
David Bromilow (1809-1898), Bitteswell Hall, Leicestershire, acquired from the above; thence by descent to his daughter, Julia Harriet Mary Jary, Bitteswell Hall, Leicestershire, 1898.
The Marlborough Gems: A Collection of Works in Cameo and Intaglio Formed by George, Third Duke of Marlborough, Purchased by the Late David Bromilow, Esq., of Bitteswell Hall, Lutterworth, the Property of Mrs. Jary, Christie's, London, 26-29 June 1899, lot 51.
with Francis E. Whelan (1848-1907), London, acquired from the above (according to auctioneer's book).
John Postle Heseltine (1843-1929), London.
Antique Gems, Greek Coins, and Greek and Roman Antiquities of J. P. Heseltine, Esq., Christie's, London, 19 April 1921, lot 81.
with Kalebdjian Frères, Paris, acquired from the above (according to auctioneer's book).
Giorgio Sangiorgi (1886-1965), Rome, acquired and brought to Switzerland, late 1930s; thence by continuous descent to the current owners.

Literature

18th century manuscript of the Arundel Collection, no. A 45, as "Apollo Actius."
A. Fountaine, The Arundel Cabinet, London, 1731, p. 2, no. 45.
S. Reinach, Pierres gravées des collections Marlborough et d'Orléans, Paris, 1895, p. 82, pl. 80, no. 73.
J. Boardman, et al., The Marlborough Gems, Formerly at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, London, 2009, p. 81, no. 121.
J. Boardman and C. Wagner, Masterpieces in Miniature: Engraved Gems from Prehistory to the Present, London, 2018, p. 136, no. 124.
Beazley Archive Gem Database no. 121.

Lot Essay

This large flat oval carnelian gem is engraved with Apollo Kitharoidos. The god strides forward holding his kithara in his left hand and a plektron in his right. His elongated slender form is typical of the Hellenistic period, as is the archaizing treatment of his chiton with its stepped and zigzag folds. The gem was mounted in a gold ring in the 18th or 19th century. For the pose compare the chalcedony gem in the Kestner Museum, Hannover, no. 90 in W. Lambrinudakis, et al., "Apollon," in LIMC, vol. II.

The subject of Apollo in his guise as the god of music was already popular by the late 6th century B.C. as seen on Attic black- and red-figured vases and also in sculpture, either in relief or in the round, sometime accompanied by the Muses. Perhaps the most famous example is the marble statue in the Vatican Museum, a Hadrianic work based on a Hellenistic original of the 2nd century B.C., no. 135 in Lambrinudakis, op. cit.

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