Bertolami Fine Art - Riversdell Close 27, KT16 9JW Chertsey
Auction 86 - Glyptics and Ancient Jewelry sessione unica
Wednesday 9 December 2020 hours 14:00 (UTC +01:00)
A roman hematite magical intaglio. The Three Graces-Hecate.
A roman hematite magical intaglio. The Three Graces-Hecate.
2nd - 3rd century A.D..
11,5 x 15 x 2 mm
The Three Moirai (Graces) standing in a group, the arms in movement. Groundline. Inscription around the edge (partially erased), (...)OBΛ TPIAOPEOBAPBAPCAI (...).
Following Plato's cosmogony, the Goddess Ananke and the Three Fates were spinning the central spindle of the cosmos (Mastrocinque 2002a, p.174-187).
Traces of iron and slight wear of marks. Rare.
Parallels :
Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1894. Handbook No. 9: Collections of Engraved Gems. no. 56, p. 40, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Bonner, Campbell. 1950. Studies in Magical Amulets, Chiefly Graeco-Egyptian, University of Michigan Studies, Humanistic Series, Vol. 49. no. 61, p. 263, pl. 3, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
U.K., private collection 70's, in the same family since then.