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. Composed of a long double-loop-in-loop chain of finely drawn gold wire, the elongated oval links interlocked in a regular rhythm to produce a supple, flexible band. The chain terminates at each end in a circular disc-shaped fitting worked in filigree, each disc set with a central boss and framed by a border of coiled wire scrolls radiating from the centre in a rosette pattern. One terminal carries a shepherd's-crook hook, the opposing terminal a small loop, together forming the clasp. The filigree terminals are executed in the fine wirework tradition of Roman goldsmithing, in which lengths of drawn wire are curled into volutes and soldered onto a flat backing to produce openwork rosettes. The central bosses would originally have secured a setting, and the surrounding scrollwork echoes the vegetal and stellate ornament found across Roman personal jewellery of the early Imperial period. The chain itself is of the loop-in-loop type, produced by soldering individual wire links into ovals and threading each through the last before closing, a technique inherited from Hellenistic workshops and refined in Roman practice to produce chains of considerable length and strength. Gold in the Roman world carried both economic and social weight. The metal was drawn from imperial mines in Iberia, Dacia, and along the Danube, and its use in personal ornament was regulated by sumptuary custom rather than restricted by law, marking rank and household prosperity. Chains of this length were worn as neck ornaments, sometimes doubled, and in certain contexts served as supports for pendants, bullae, or amuletic capsules. The lightness of construction and the fineness of the wire indicate a workshop practised in producing wearable ornament for a clientele of means, and the survival of both terminals with an intact clasp is unusual for the type. This necklace exemplifies the Roman goldsmith's command of loop-in-loop chainwork combined with filigree terminals, a pairing that defined personal ornament across the first two centuries of the Empire. The economy of means, in which the visual interest is concentrated at the clasp while the chain itself relies on regularity and length for its effect, is characteristic of the best Roman work in this idiom. Dimensions: Length: 84cm

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