AN ANCIENT ROMAN GOLD NECKLACE, CIRCA 1ST-2ND CENTURY A.D.

拍品描述

AN ANCIENT ROMAN GOLD NECKLACE, CIRCA 1ST-2ND CENTURY A.D. Of loop-in-loop construction, the chain formed from a continuous series of fine gold wire links drawn and soldered into oval elements, each doubled through its neighbour to produce a dense, flexible, four-sided plaited cord of even gauge along its full length. The two terminals finish in plain cylindrical collars of sheet gold, from which the closure is suspended: at one end a simple hook of round-section wire tapering to a small ball finial, at the other a corresponding loop, both worked from the same alloy as the chain. The technique visible here is that known in the modern literature as foxtail or wheat-ear plaiting, executed entirely without cast or stamped elements. Each link has been formed from wire, bent, soldered closed, then interwoven with its predecessor while still open, a sequence requiring the goldsmith to construct the chain link by link along its entire length. The regularity of the resulting braid, the uniformity of the wire gauge, and the discreet sheet-metal collars concealing the join between chain and clasp all indicate a workshop practised in the standard vocabulary of Roman imperial goldsmithing. Chains of this construction are among the most characteristic personal ornaments of the early and high Empire, worn by women as neck chains in their own right and also employed as supports for pendants, cameos, amuletic capsules, and coin settings. The type has a long ancestry in the Hellenistic Greek east, where loop-in-loop chains were already highly developed by the third century B.C., and passed into Roman use through the workshops of Alexandria, Antioch, and the western Mediterranean. Their appearance in surviving hoards, sepulchral contexts, and the wall paintings of Pompeii and Herculaneum confirms that such chains formed part of the everyday jewellery of the propertied classes rather than being reserved for state or funerary display. Gold itself, in the Roman world, was regulated by sumptuary convention and by the practical realities of supply from Iberian and Dacian mines. The unalloyed, high-purity metal of chains of this kind, retaining its warm colour and softness after nearly two millennia, reflects the preference of Roman goldsmiths for working close to pure gold, which permitted the fine drawing and repeated annealing that loop-in-loop work demands. That the clasp survives intact, still functional, and integral with the chain is unusual, since terminals are commonly the first components to be lost or replaced. This necklace exemplifies the quiet technical accomplishment of Roman imperial goldsmithing at its most restrained, where display resides in the density and evenness of the plait rather than in applied ornament. Complete chains of this length, preserving both hook and loop terminals in their original state, represent the fullest surviving expression of a type more often encountered in fragments.8g, total length 53cm

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