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Swivel ring with a scarab showing an athlete pouring sand on his thigh
Italic, Etruscan
Late Archaic Period
about 500–475 B.C.
Medium/Technique
Gold and carnelian
Dimensions
13mm (1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Bartlett Collection—Museum purchase with funds from the Francis Bartlett Donation of 1912
Accession Number21.1201
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsJewelry, Ancient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment – Rings
Catalogue Raisonné
Lewes House Gems, no. 040 (1920; 2002, additional published references).
DescriptionBrownish orange carnelian. Scarab with a flat, oval base engraved in intaglio; pierced lengthwise; set in a swivel ring made of gold sheet and decorated with faux twisted wire on either ends of the swiveling part. Athlete with right knee on the ground, frontal with head in profile to right. He pours sand on his right knee with his left hand. Pellet border. Back carved as a beetle with a hatched border around the thorax, two raised lines dividing the elytra, winglets in relief and dotted head. Detailed legs with spined front legs. Plinth with tongues. The scarab is broken in two at the upper third. It was glued back with a yellowing binder. Missing chip on the plinth.
Provenance19th century, probably excavated at Vulci by the Campanari family. Arthur Evans (b. 1851 – d. 1941), Oxford. By 1920, Edward Perry Warren (according to J. D. Beazley, The Lewes House Collection of Ancient Gems, no. 40: from Vulci; formerly in the possession of Campanari; later in the Evans collection); April 7, 1921: purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren for $ 30,000.00 (this figure is the total purchase price for MFA 21.1193-21.1221)