CIRCA 7TH CENTURY AD

Details

A BYZANTINE GOLD BUCKLE
CIRCA 7TH CENTURY AD
The hook with a peacock engraved onto the square-shaped plate, the hoop and loop hinged onto an elongated and waisted plate, chip carved, punched and engraved with a double headed snake following the edge, surrounding a crocodile seen from above, two stylised dolphins and foliate design above, the reverse with three separately-cast loops for attachment
4in. (10.2 cm.) long; 65.4 grams

Provenance

With Lennox Gallery, London, February 1999.

Brought to you by

Cosima Stewart

cstewart@christies.com +44 (0)020 7389 2029

Lot Essay

For a similar gilt copper-alloy example decorated with a crocodile enclosed by a double-headed snake, cf., C. Entwistle and N. Adams, Intelligible Beauty. Recent research on Byzantine jewellery, London, 2010, p. 21, no. 7; and for another example in gold cf., E. Garam, ‘Über die Beziehung der byzantinischen Goldschnallen und der awarenzeitlichen Pseudoschnallen’, in Kontakte zwischen Iran, Byzanz und der Steppe im 6.–7. Jahrhundert, Budapest/Naples/Rome, 2000, 222, fig. 3.1-3.

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