Roma Numismatics Ltd
E-Sale 72 25 Jun 2020
View prices realized
► Sale information
Find similar lots
Roman Openwork Gold Pendant Necklace. Early-mid 3rd century AD. For analogous aurei of Severus Alexander set in a gold pendant cf.: Bruhn p. 13, fig. 8, cat. 3 (= Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, gift from J. Pierpoint Morgan, acc. no. 17.190.1655); BMC Roman Jewellery, 2727, pl. 59 (= Castellani Collection 1872); Numismatica Ars Classica Auction 1, 29-30 March 1989, lot 951 (realised CHF 24,000.-). C. Perassi 2007, p. 281, 25 (= Triton 9, 10 January 2006, lot 1536 [realised $ 3,750]); C. Perassi, Gioelli 2017, p. 253, 9 (= Sternberg FPL 6, July 1994, lot 117 [sold for CHF 27,000]) = Trident Auction 19, New York 5 January 2016, lot 598 (realised $ 18,000). 10.27g, 29mm x 35mm.
Coin:
Severus Alexander AV Aureus. Rome, late AD 222. IMP C M AVR SEV ALEXAND AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / IOVI CONSERVATORI, Jupiter standing to left, holding thunderbolt and sceptre. RIC 140; C. 69; BMCRE 55; Calicó 3056. Good Very Fine. Very Rare; only 2 others on CoinArchives.
From a private UK collection;
Acquired from Ariadne Galleries (London) in 2017;
Ex private UK collection;
Acquired from Spink & Son Ltd., 1986.
From the time of the Ptolemies to the disruption of the classical world under Valerian and Gallienus, Egypt was the major centre of production of jewellery. As one of the wealthiest provinces of the Roman empire, Egypt's ostentatious Hellenised and indigenous middle classes had no Western qualms of wearing opulent gold jewellery, often in-set with contemporary or earlier gold coins, very apparent on two 3rd century AD mummy-portraits from Antinopolis, now in the Walters Art Galley, Baltimore and Institute of Arts, Detroit (cf. Bruhn 25 and 26). The reason for this prodigality is probably connected to a desire to preserve coin value at a time of high inflation under the Severen dynasty and the low metallic quality of the local coinage. This was expertly achieved in jewellery without damaging the coins, which would have been against the law at the time, in a similar way that way some modern numismatists encapsulate coins in plastic containers today.
Roman coin jewellery pendant frames of the 3rd century AD were typically executed in a style called by contemporaries: 'opus interrasile', an openwork technique producing a pierced design frame circulating a double rimmed bezel which could host gems, small cameos or coins without soldering or damaging them. A ribbon shaped suspension loop was usually soldered to the frame and the coin or gem could be seen from the front or back to emphasis the coin's imperial authority and religious sacredness.
Such coin-set jewellery is implied in The Enactments of Justinian (Digest Book VII, 1, 28), which cites a ruling by the 2nd century AD jurist Sextus Pompeius: Nomismatum aureeorum vel argenteorum veterum, quibus pro gemmis uti solent, usus fractus legari potest ('Ancient gold and silver coins, which are ordinarily used as gems, can be bequeathed as a legacy'. This text raises two important considerations: first, that by the time a goldsmith placed a coin in the pendant the coin was already old (veterum). Secondly, they were set without damage or alteration, so that they could be easily removed from the frame and redeemed as legal tender at a time of emergency without mistrust of unfamiliar or older currency.
For further reading see:
P. Bastien & C. Metzgerg, 'Le bijoux et l'argenterie', in Le trèsor de Beaurains (dit d'Arras), Wetteren 1977, pp. 159-86.
J-A, Bruhn, Coins and Costume in Late Antiquity, Washington 1993.
F. Mashall, Catalogue of Jewellery, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman in the Department of Antiquities, British Museum, London 1969.
C. Perassi, 'Gioelli monetali e modern', RIN 108, Milano 2007.
C. Perassi, 'Gioelli monetali romani dai cataloghi d'asta', RIN 118, Milano 2017.
C. Vermeule, Numismaticsin in Antiquity, The Preservation and Display of Coins in Ancient Greece and Rome, SNR 54, 1975, pp. 5-32.
Coin:
Severus Alexander AV Aureus. Rome, late AD 222. IMP C M AVR SEV ALEXAND AVG, laureate, draped and cuirassed bust right / IOVI CONSERVATORI, Jupiter standing to left, holding thunderbolt and sceptre. RIC 140; C. 69; BMCRE 55; Calicó 3056. Good Very Fine. Very Rare; only 2 others on CoinArchives.
From a private UK collection;
Acquired from Ariadne Galleries (London) in 2017;
Ex private UK collection;
Acquired from Spink & Son Ltd., 1986.
From the time of the Ptolemies to the disruption of the classical world under Valerian and Gallienus, Egypt was the major centre of production of jewellery. As one of the wealthiest provinces of the Roman empire, Egypt's ostentatious Hellenised and indigenous middle classes had no Western qualms of wearing opulent gold jewellery, often in-set with contemporary or earlier gold coins, very apparent on two 3rd century AD mummy-portraits from Antinopolis, now in the Walters Art Galley, Baltimore and Institute of Arts, Detroit (cf. Bruhn 25 and 26). The reason for this prodigality is probably connected to a desire to preserve coin value at a time of high inflation under the Severen dynasty and the low metallic quality of the local coinage. This was expertly achieved in jewellery without damaging the coins, which would have been against the law at the time, in a similar way that way some modern numismatists encapsulate coins in plastic containers today.
Roman coin jewellery pendant frames of the 3rd century AD were typically executed in a style called by contemporaries: 'opus interrasile', an openwork technique producing a pierced design frame circulating a double rimmed bezel which could host gems, small cameos or coins without soldering or damaging them. A ribbon shaped suspension loop was usually soldered to the frame and the coin or gem could be seen from the front or back to emphasis the coin's imperial authority and religious sacredness.
Such coin-set jewellery is implied in The Enactments of Justinian (Digest Book VII, 1, 28), which cites a ruling by the 2nd century AD jurist Sextus Pompeius: Nomismatum aureeorum vel argenteorum veterum, quibus pro gemmis uti solent, usus fractus legari potest ('Ancient gold and silver coins, which are ordinarily used as gems, can be bequeathed as a legacy'. This text raises two important considerations: first, that by the time a goldsmith placed a coin in the pendant the coin was already old (veterum). Secondly, they were set without damage or alteration, so that they could be easily removed from the frame and redeemed as legal tender at a time of emergency without mistrust of unfamiliar or older currency.
For further reading see:
P. Bastien & C. Metzgerg, 'Le bijoux et l'argenterie', in Le trèsor de Beaurains (dit d'Arras), Wetteren 1977, pp. 159-86.
J-A, Bruhn, Coins and Costume in Late Antiquity, Washington 1993.
F. Mashall, Catalogue of Jewellery, Greek, Etruscan, and Roman in the Department of Antiquities, British Museum, London 1969.
C. Perassi, 'Gioelli monetali e modern', RIN 108, Milano 2007.
C. Perassi, 'Gioelli monetali romani dai cataloghi d'asta', RIN 118, Milano 2017.
C. Vermeule, Numismaticsin in Antiquity, The Preservation and Display of Coins in Ancient Greece and Rome, SNR 54, 1975, pp. 5-32.