AN ETRUSCAN GOLD SWIVEL RING WITH BANDED AGATE SCARAB

Details

AN ETRUSCAN GOLD SWIVEL RING WITH BANDED AGATE SCARAB
5TH CENTURY B.C.
The heavy penannular hoop with double wire collar at each end with flattened pin fixed in between, on the pin is mounted the banded agate scarab cut on the underside with a running hound(?) with head turned back over its shoulder almost touching its tail which curls up and over its back, scarab: .3/8 in. (0.9 cm.) long, hoop: .15/16 in. (2.4 cm.) diam.; and an unusual Orientalising blue paste or 'faience' scarab set in a gold mount, the underside of the scarab cut with a standing deer before an ankh-sign, a lotus flower over the animal's back, the gold mount with sheet around the scarab, cross-shaped sheet across the back of the scarab embossed with five circles, and tear-shaped loop by each end of the scarab perforation, mid-8th/early 7th Century B.C., .7/8 in. (2.2 cm.) long (2)

Lot Essay

PUBLISHED:
Item 1: H. A. Cahn, Art of Ancient Italy, Etruscans, Greeks and Romans, exh. cat., New York, 1970, p. 19, no. 24 h.

Cf. Christie's, London, 6 July 1994, lot 337 for an agate scarab swivel ring; and Christie's, London, 8 July 1992, lot 64 for a gold and plasma scaraboid from the Ralph Harari collection.

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