Greek Gold Earrings with Bull Heads
3rd century BC. A pair of gold earrings, varying in design, formed as loops with animal head terminals and tapering shanks designed to meet attachment loops beneath the animals' chins; one featuring a twisted loop with decorative collar and bull's head terminal, detailing to the eyes, short horns, ears and hair; a second earring with a twisted shank, decorative collar and bull's head terminal displaying conical horns, curly hair at the head and raised eyes. See Despini, A., Greek Art. Ancient Gold Jewellery, Athens, 1996, p.114, for discussion and comparable examples. Similar samples have been recently acquired by the Princeton University Art Museum, Museum purchase, accession number 2018-105 a-b, Classical Purchase Fund, in honour of Susan Love Lehre, Department Manager, Department of Art and Archaeology, 1998-2018. 9.93 grams total, 28-30mm (1 - 1 1/4"). Property of a London gentleman; formerly in the private collection of an English lady previously living in Oxford; acquired on the UK art market from the mid 1980s. Earrings of this general type were introduced at the end of the fourth century and became ubiquitous in the third century; they are found wherever Greeks of that era lived, travelled, or traded, from Spain to Afghanistan. Bull’s heads were a common design element, as were the heads of lynxes, antelopes, and women. [2]
Condition Report: Fine condition.
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3rd century BC. A pair of gold earrings, varying in design, formed as loops with animal head terminals and tapering shanks designed to meet attachment loops beneath the animals' chins; one featuring a twisted loop with decorative collar and bull's head terminal, detailing to the eyes, short horns, ears and hair; a second earring with a twisted shank, decorative collar and bull's head terminal displaying conical horns, curly hair at the head and raised eyes. See Despini, A., Greek Art. Ancient Gold Jewellery, Athens, 1996, p.114, for discussion and comparable examples. Similar samples have been recently acquired by the Princeton University Art Museum, Museum purchase, accession number 2018-105 a-b, Classical Purchase Fund, in honour of Susan Love Lehre, Department Manager, Department of Art and Archaeology, 1998-2018. 9.93 grams total, 28-30mm (1 - 1 1/4"). Property of a London gentleman; formerly in the private collection of an English lady previously living in Oxford; acquired on the UK art market from the mid 1980s. Earrings of this general type were introduced at the end of the fourth century and became ubiquitous in the third century; they are found wherever Greeks of that era lived, travelled, or traded, from Spain to Afghanistan. Bull’s heads were a common design element, as were the heads of lynxes, antelopes, and women. [2]
Condition Report: Fine condition.
