PAIRE DE BOUCLES D’OREILLES SARMATES EN OR À DÉCOR... Lot 5

PAIRE DE BOUCLES D’OREILLES SARMATES EN OR À DÉCOR DE TÊTES DE LIONS ET VERRE COLORÉ EN IMITATION DE GRENAT er siècle ap. J.-C. Poids brut : 7,3 gr. 5 cm. Chaque boucle d’oreille se compose d’un cercle de fils torsadés qui se terminent par une tête de lion. La crinière est ornée de filigranes et d’émaux, dont on voit la trace. La tête tient un cadre circulaire orné d’un grand cabochon en pâte de verre qui imite le grenat. On peut remarquer le décor perlé et le fin entrelacs de quatre fils d’or. L’usage des verres colorés est typique des bijoux du Nord de la mer Noire. Des modèles similaires ont été découverts à la fin des années 1800 lors des fouilles de Sébastopol (1). A pair of gold and glass lion-head earrings 1st century AD Weight: 7.3 g. Each earring consists of a tapering twisted wire hoop terminating in a lion head with filigree and enamelled collar. To the front of the head is a hinged joint linked to a circular setting containing a low cabochon glass inlay imitating a garnet. The collars are decorated with twisted wire ‘ropes’ and beaded wire, plus pear-shaped settings with enamel, now largely weathered. The hoops are of four pairs of twisted, tapered wires. The front of the lion heads are linked to the circular settings by means of a hinged fastener. Although earrings consisting of tapered hoops terminating in animal heads are well known in the later Classical and Hellenistic Greek worlds, the form here, with the additional hinged circular setting, seems to be typical of the Northern Black Sea. Several examples were excavated at Sevastopol in the late 1800s. (1). The use of coloured glass to imitate gems such as the garnets and emeralds often seen in Hellenistic gold-work seems a characteristic of much Sarmatian jewellery.