Jewelry

Magnificent and substantial early Byzantine ring with double bezel, set with a vibrant garnet and pierced pearl

Gold ring set with garnet and pearl. The band-like hoop is curved inward, and the shoulders flattened to a triangular shape at the join with the bezel. The high, lightly flared rectangular bezel is joined to a double plinth with grooved decoration. It is set with a bright red garnet, a low cabochon of rounded rectangular form. Attached to the side of the bezel is a gold conical element in the shape of a floral calyx with pointed tips (each with a small piercing). The calyx holds a circular collar of twisted wire, within which is a pierced pearl. An S-shaped filigree element of flat wire decorates each side.

Provenance:

Private Collection, Germany, 1980s; Private Collection, New York, 1999; Christie's, Ancient Jewelry, New York, December 13, 2013, lot 332

Literature:

The high quality of the craftsmanship and design suggests that it was produced in an important workshop in Constantinople that was active in the early sixth century. The use of an additional gold element set with a gem or a pearl to form a double-bezel was a fashion already encountered in the fourth and fifth centuries, but the distinctive conical form of the component and its S-shaped filigree decoration are characteristic of this early Byzantine workshop.

For examples of this type, one set with garnet, one with emerald, and another with amethyst, cf. nos 12, 13, and fig. 12.1 in J. Spier, Byzantium and the West: Jewellery in the First Millennium (London, 2012) and again in S. Hindman/ S. Miller, Take this Ring, nos. 11 and 12.        

R-1048