Later Eastern Imperial Roman Gold and Emerald Earrings

Gold sheet cut out in opus interrasile technique. Square shields with a pinned emerald bead, and drops with similar beads hung from the base, a smaller bezel above set with a tiny cabochon emerald. The emerald beads date a century or more earlier than the earrings themselves, and were appropriated from a broken up necklace to make them.

3rd - 4th Century AD

Height: 48 mm.     (1 15/16 in.)

Width: 17 mm     (0 11/16 in.)

7.6g.

Ex: American private collection Mr. A., late 1970s. Property of Antiquarium, Ltd., New York, acquired from Sumer Gallery, New York, October 1998.

(#ee1235rm)

Exhibited: 

BRAFA Art Fair. (Brussels, 26 Jan- 2 Feb 2020) 

Comparandum:

Stefanelli, Lucia Pirzio Biroli ; L’Oro dei Romani (Rome, 1992) no.257, 269