A ROMAN AGATE "DZI" BEAD WITH GOLD FILIGREE MOUNTS, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D.

拍品描述

A ROMAN AGATE "DZI" BEAD WITH GOLD FILIGREE MOUNTS, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY A.D. Of elongated barrel form, the banded agate bead is worked from a rich translucent brown ground crossed by opaque white bands at either terminal and around the waist, the central register bearing a single etched circular "eye" motif, a concentric white ring enclosing a small dark pupil. The stone is polished to a high lustre and shows scattered surface pitting and mineral accretion consistent with age. Both ends are dressed in worked gold caps of pronounced goldsmith's character. The upper mount rises as a hexagonal collar of applied granulation and beaded wire, ornamented with four spurred handles at the shoulders in the manner of a miniature amphora, above which rises a broad strap suspension loop of sheet gold. The lower terminal is set within a matching granulated cap descending to a small ribbed and beaded finial drop. The eye motif at the centre of the bead is the defining decorative element and the reason such stones circulated so widely across the ancient world. Produced by the alkali etching of banded agate, whereby a natron-based paste is applied and heat-fixed to bleach a pale ring into the stone, the technique originated in the Indus Valley in the third millennium B.C. and continued in production centres in western India and the Iranian plateau into the Roman period. The single concentric eye was understood in the Mediterranean world as apotropaic, a device against the evil eye, and beads of this type were prized as amulets, traded westward along the caravan routes and set into personal ornament by Roman goldsmiths. The goldwork bracketing the stone is characteristic of the eastern Roman jewellery tradition of the first century, in which imported hardstones and cameos were dignified by elaborate filigree and granulated settings. The miniature amphora form of the upper collar, with its paired volute handles and rows of applied granules, belongs to a repertoire familiar from Syro-Roman and Alexandrian workshops, where goldsmiths translated architectural and vessel forms into wearable ornament. Gold at this weight and purity, worked to this degree of granulated fineness, indicates a commission of some standing. The pairing of the etched agate, itself an object of long-distance trade and considerable antiquity by the time of its remounting, with fresh Roman goldwork transforms the bead into a talismanic pendant of layered value, at once an amulet, an heirloom stone, and a display of the goldsmith's craft. The etched agate bead itself may well have been already old when the Roman mounts were applied, since such beads were curated across centuries and passed through successive hands. Their reappearance in Hellenistic and Roman jewellery reflects the reach of Roman trade into the Indian Ocean and the appetite of imperial-period patrons for exotic hardstones with prophylactic meaning. This pendant exemplifies the Roman practice of ennobling an imported eastern amulet through indigenous goldsmithing, uniting an etched agate of Indo-Iranian tradition with granulated gold mounts in the eastern Mediterranean manner. It stands within a small group of surviving first-century pendants in which the amuletic power of the "eye" bead is deliberately framed and elevated by the vocabulary of Roman personal ornament. Dimensions: Length 5.5 cm

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