Phoenix Ancient Art S.A.

The group consists of a necklace and a matching pair of earrings. The necklace consists of a large, decorative center piece in the shape of three oval box settings, held on each side by an identical polychrome chain. The box-settings vary in size; a large one in the center is set with an amethyst, the two smaller flanking ones with emeralds. They are hinged together as well as to three dimensional, finely shaped lynx heads at the inner end of each chain that seem to hold the centerpiece with their teeth.

Although very different from the centerpiece that they support, the polychrome chains are equivalent in beauty and artistic quality. They are formed of beads of gold, emerald and banded agate, and separated by small circlets of gold granules. A noteworthy detail is the diamond-shaped pattern of gold granules on the globular gold beads.

The earrings that are part of this group are similar in style. Their central element is a circular frame, decorated with granulated triangles, which surround a box setting holding an emerald. Above, there are two more settings, one oval, and the other circular. The joins are embellished by wire spirals and small beads held by gold pins with elaborate heads. Attached to the back of this central element is an ear wire, its lower end forms a hinge that holds a slender, very decorative amphora. A banded agate forms the body of the vessel, its white bands horizontally arranged, while the small neck, the delicate volute handles and an elongated foot on a square base are made of gold. Tassels pendants combining gold chains, granulated circlets as well as garnet and emerald beads flank the amphora.

The necklace as well as the ear ornaments represents the characteristic features of fine Hellenistic jewelry dating to the second century B.C.; the predilection for color, technical skill with excellent granulation and hinges, and finely shaped lynx heads.

The basic shape of this type of necklace is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, further parallels are in The British Museum, London, in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.

Related necklace with lynx heads holding a center piece composed of box settings: N. Anfimov, The Kuban`s Ancient Gold, Exhib. Cat. Krasnodar 1987, p. 205, a necklace in the Krasnodar Museum, from a barrow at Peschany village, excavated1979.and M.I. Maksimov, Artischovskij Kurgan (1979), p. 29.

For the center piece cf. BMC J 2747,

For the lynx-head finials on a necklace in the Metropolitan Museum Bulletin 1994.230. 4-6, Bulletin 1995, p. 15 and the necklace from the Olbia Treasure in Baltimore, s. A. Oliver, Jr., The Olbia Treasure, in A.Garside (ed.) Jewelry, Ancient to Modern (1979) pp. 94ff., no. 281.
s. also M. Pfrommer, Untersuchungen zur Chronologie früh- und hochhellenistischen Goldschmucks (1990) pp. 92f.

For the diamond pattern s. a similarly decorated bead in the Inidana University Art Museum, W. Rudolph, A Golden Legacy, Ancient Jewelry from the Burton Y. Berry Collection, Indiana University Art Museum, 1995, p. 172, no. 36.A.6, and N.A. Antimov, The Kuban`s Ancient Gold (1987) no. 209.
For Hellenistic Jewellery in general s. M. Pfrommer and t. Markus, Greek Gold from Hellensitic Egypt, Getty Museum Studies on Art, Los Angeles 2001; B. Deppert-Lippitz, Späthellenistische Goldschmiedearbeiten, Antike Kunst 15,2, 1972, pp…..

For the ear pendants cf. a pair from the 1st cent. B.C./1st cent. A.D. burial mound at Nogaichik, Crimean Peninsula, in the Museum of Historical Treasures in Kiev, M. Y. Treister, Concerning The Jewelry Items from the Burial Mound at Nogaichik, Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia, vol. 4,2, 1987, p. 134ff., fig. 9; for related pieces in the British Museum s. Marshall, BMCJ nos. 2324 – 2331.