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Auction: 26052 - Jewellery & Objets de Vertu
Lot: 27

A ROMAN GOLD HAIRPIN
CIRCA 1ST-3RD CENTURY AD
The gold pin terminating in an extended right hand emerging from a calyx, holding a pomegranate between the thumb, index and middle fingers.
Analysed as 90.49% gold, 7.68% silver, 1.84% copper
Unmarked
Size/dimensions: 10.80cm long
Gross weight: 13.70g


The pin shows small signs of wear consistent with age, with some pitting and small dents, otherwise it is offered in very good condition with exquisite ancient workmanship.


Provenance

A.E. Martin, London

Alan E. and Marianne Schwartz, Michigan, acquired from the above on 3 October 1967

Thence by descent in the family

Their sale, Sotheby's, London, Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art, 5 July 2024, lot 108

Where acquired by the present owner



In the ancient world the pomegranate, with its abundance of seeds, was a symbol of fertility, marriage and renewal, closely associated with Proserpina, whose eating of its seeds bound her to return to the underworld each year. The gesture of the hand may carry a religious meaning. Similar hands appear on bronze votive offerings dedicated to Jupiter Dolichenus, a god whose cult originated at Doliche in Commagene, in what is now south-eastern Turkey. His mystery cult spread through the Roman world, especially among soldiers, and reached its height under the Severan emperors (AD 193-235). Dávid Bartus has examined these inscribed votive hands alongside hand-terminal hairpins in his study “Roman Hairpins Representing Human Hands: Typology and Symbolism”, raising the possibility that pins of this type shared in the cult’s imagery. A pin of very similar form, made in silver-gilt rather than gold, was shown in the exhibition Antiquities from the Collection of Christos G. Bastis at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 1987 (cat. no. 188).

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Estimate
£6,000 to £8,000

Starting price
£5500