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Cameo with Mercury
Roman
Imperial Period
1st century A.D.
Medium/Technique
Sardonyx
Dimensions
Length: 3.4 cm (1 5/16 in.)
Credit Line
Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Accession Number98.755
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsJewelry, Ancient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment – Cameos
DescriptionOval sardonyx cameo in three layers: pale brown over white over brown. Mercury standing with head in profile to left and body in three-quarter view. He wears a chlamys and petasos, and holds a caduceus in his right hand and purse (?) in left. Ground line and raised border. Left foot and ground line damaged.
ProvenanceSaid to have been found in Syria [note 1]. By 1892, Michal Tyszkiewicz (b. 1828 - d. 1897), Rome; June 8 - 10, 1898, posthumous Tyszkiewicz sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, lot 274. 1898, Edward Perry Warren (b. 1860 - d. 1928), Rome and London; 1898, sold by Warren to the MFA for $69,618 [note 2]. (Accession Date: September 20, 1898)
Notes:
[1]Wilhelm Froehner, La Collection Tyszkiewicz (Munich, 1892), p. 31, pl. XXXIII, 3.
[2]Total price for MFA accession nos. 98.641-98.940.
Notes:
[1]Wilhelm Froehner, La Collection Tyszkiewicz (Munich, 1892), p. 31, pl. XXXIII, 3.
[2]Total price for MFA accession nos. 98.641-98.940.