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Scaraboid gem with walking zebu
Greek
Classical Period
about 450–400 B.C.
Medium/Technique
Banded agate
Dimensions
Length: 21 mm (13/16 in.)
Credit Line
Bartlett Collection—Museum purchase with funds from the Francis Bartlett Donation of 1912
Accession Number23.584
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsJewelry, Ancient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsJewelry / Adornment – Scarabs and scaraboids
Catalogue Raisonné
Lewes House Gems, no. 064 (1920; 2002, additional published references).
DescriptionBanded tan and white agate. Intaglio. Pierced (horiztonal). Motif oriented horiztonally. A humped bull (zebu) walking on a ground line to the right. Many of the details of the bull are rendered with round pellets: the nose, eyes, ankles and leg joints, along its neck, and top of tail. Its ribs are delineated with shallow lines, and shaggy hair along neck rendered by a series of irregular vertical lines. In front of the bull, hovering over the ground line, an arc-shaped mark.
ProvenanceAccording to J. D. Beazley, The Lewes House Collection of Ancient Gems, no. 64: stated by Froehner to have been found in Greece; by date unknown: Count Michel Tyszkiewicz Collection; 1898: auction of the M. Tyszkiewicz Collection, Hotel des Commissaires-Priseurs, 9 rue Drouot, Paris, June 8-10, lot 264; by date unknown: with Edward Perry Warren; November 21, 1923: purchased by MFA from Edward Perry Warren for
$ 32,948.27 (this figure is the total purchase price for MFA 23.576-23.594)
$ 32,948.27 (this figure is the total purchase price for MFA 23.576-23.594)