Suite of gold jewelry

Rare hellenistic set of jewelry comprising a necklace with lion-head terminals, a pair of earrings with double lion-head terminals as well as a large gold finger ring. The necklace formed from a length of loop-in-loop chain, each end with a lion-head terminal, a hook-and-loop closure projecting from their mouths; each earring with a hoop of hollow tapering tubes braided together, a lion-head terminal joined to the hoop by a collar of filigree spirals and granulation framed by beaded wires; the large finger ring shows a standing and nude winged Eros in contraposto leant on a stick, solid cast

Period

Greek, hellenistic period, late 4th century B.C.

Private collection, Switzerland, acquired 1971/72
Comes with a custom made box by Castelluci, mid-to late 1970s

E. Simon e.a.
Dei e Uomini, Roma 1997, 22

D. Williams and J. Ogden
Greek Gold: Jewellery of the Classical World, London, 1994, no. 148

Christine Alexander
Jewelry: The Art of the Goldsmith in Classical Times as Illustrated in the Museum Collection. p. 33, fig. 70, 1928, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gisela M. A. Richter
"Greek and Roman Jewelry: Recent Accessions." Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1924, 19(2): pp. 34–35, fig. 2