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Etruscan and South Italian Finger Rings in Oxford

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

John Boardman
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Of the many benefactions to the University of Oxford made by Charles Drury Edmond Fortnum (1820–99) one of the most important but least publicised was his great collection of finger rings. Signet rings of all periods were but one of his many interests, and he wrote several short studies about them. The present article presents a publication of the Etruscan and South Italian metal rings in the collection, since they can readily be considered on their own, while the Greek and Roman rings with intaglio devices and swivel rings with scarabs are best reserved for the proposed catalogue of Greek and Roman engraved gems. This study of the Oxford rings is also complementary to a more general one by the present writer devoted to Archaic Finger Rings, to be published in Antike Kunst. The Oxford rings listed here are illustrated in Plates I–III, the bezels enlarged twice (except nos. 16, 23–34), side views life size. Measurements are given in millimetres and the devices are described as they appear on the ring, not the impression. I have to thank Dr. H. W. Catling for giving me access to the rings and supplying photographs, and Mr. R. W. Hamilton, Keeper of the Ashmolean, for permission to publish them.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 34 , November 1966 , pp. 1 - 17
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1966

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References

1 He had good reason for this. The necklace is B.M.C. Jewellery 1460, p. 21, with early fifth-century gorgoneia and lion masks. Of the same find are the earrings, ibid., 2196–7, pl. 43, dated fifth-century by Higgins (Greek and Roman Jewellery 139) and the famous relief mirror, B.M.C. Bronzes 542, pl. 18, dated by Beazley about 480 (JHS lxix, 1949, 3 with pl. 2aGoogle Scholar).

2 NS 1905, 58, fig. 6. If the tomb group is a real one it should be noted that it includes at least two fifth-century Attic vases: a glaux cup and a St. Valentin kantharos.

3 A cup by the Aberdeen Painter, ARV 2 919, no. 1.

4 Compare for the general motif, Pfuhl, MuZ, fig. 443 (Louvre G144, Makron); fig. 427 (Cab. Med. 576, Brygos Painter); Beazley, Greek Vases in Poland, pl. 10.1 (Warsaw, Brygos Painter). Closest to our (iv) are the groups on the Caeretan hydria in Vienna (Robertson, Greek Painting 74). Compare too the cooperative maenad on the Würzburg black figure vase, Langlotz, pl. 38.178, or the inspection on a red figure pelike in Tarquinia (ARV 2 224, no. 7; CVA i, pl. 12.2). On a Majolica plate of c. A.D. 1500 in Toronto (Heinrich, , Art Treasures in the R.O.M., 127.4Google Scholar) a very similar figure of a woman offers herself to Pan.

5 JHS lvii, 1937, pl. 7Google Scholar.

6 The two vases mentioned by Beazley, EVP 68: Élite iv, pl. 81 (London F100)Google Scholar and Brussels, CVA ii, pl. IV Be, 1.11Google Scholar.

7 As on the black figure pelike, London W40 (Beazley, Attic Black-Figure, A Study, pl. 15) where it is contrasted with the satyr seizing a woman on the other side of the vase.

8 Cf. the Etruscan gem, B.M.C. Engraved Gems 694, pl. 12 (Antike Gemmen, pl. 18.34; the second figure is probably not a youth).

9 The Etruscan gem Oxford 965 360 (Exhibition of Antiquities, Spencer-Churchill, 1965, pl. 17.105Google Scholar), forerunner of the Roman gem, Antike Germmen, p;. 49.25, if not a modern (reversed) copy after it.

10 Coche de la Ferté, Les bijoux antiques, pl. 32.4 (Louvre Bj4).

11 Giglioli, pl. 280.5; Beazley, EVP 121, Clusium Group. Standing man with dressed girl on the scarab, Boston 08.289.

12 Beazley, Lewes House Gems 92, pl. 3 (Antike Gemmen, pl. 20.70) now Boston 27.726.

13 As Antike Gemmen, pl. 63.20; B.M.C. Engraved Gems 710 (no. ill.).

14 Gerhard, pl. 201, Suppl. pls. 121, 132; and cf. the candelabrum top, Giglioli, pl. 215.1.

15 Riis Tyrrhenika, pl. 11.2; and compare the bronzes in London and Florence, van Vacano, Die Etrusker pl. 84. For the cista; Ducati, L'Arte etrusca, fig. 514, and Riis, op. cit., 34, 62, for its date.

16 B.M.C. Rings 43, pl. 2 (Antike Gemmen, pl. 9.36).

17 On the type, Brown, The Etruscan Lion 141 and pl. 51c. An early example on the scarab, Bibl. Nat. 1762B.

18 Beazley, Lewes House Gems 22, pl. 2 (Antike Gemmen, pl. 10.2; now Boston 27.674). The stone should be set vertically since the straight end to the bezel border is surely an indication of a ground line. This and our ring can be added to the Andokides Painter's representation of the throw (ARV 2 4, no. 8). It is not as rare as Brown (op. cit., 140f., 143n.) suggests; others are the Etruscan gem, Richter, Engraved Gems in New York 173, pl. 29; the Etruscan mirror, Gerhard, pl. 133; the Greek gem, Antike Gemmen, pl. 9.7 (Paris, Cab. Med., de Luynes 262).

19 Schefold, Meisterwerke no. 561 (Guilhou 81); Reinach, Ant. Bosph. Cimm., pl. 18.14; Boston 98.784 (Arch. Anz. 1899, 140, no. 18Google Scholar); Bull. Rhode Island xxi, 1933, 23Google Scholar (in relief); Mat. Res. 69, 70, fig. 38.3 (Nymphaeum); Carapanos 258, Svoronos, pl. 4; B.M.C. Rings 39, fig. 10.

20 London B641 (Haimon Painter; Haspels, ABL 242; Roscher, Omphalos, pl. 4.3). And cf. ibid., pl. 8.3 (Aegina relief) for two eagles on the omphalos and pl. 2.1 for the vertical fillets.

21 E.g., Vercoutter, Obj. ég. … carthaginois 214f., nos. 554–6, 558; Babelon, Coll. Pauvert de la Chapelle, pl. 4.29 (Sardinia); B.M.C. Engraved Gems 286, pl. 6 (Amathus), 287; London (Western Asiatic) 104472 (Byblos); Berlin 105, Furtwängler, pl. 3 (with snake in mouth; Sardinia).

22 There are a few other types with relief decoration; e.g., Louvre Bj1107, which has a circular bezel with a twisted wire border and a Late Archaic gorgoneion in relief.

23 Becatti, Oreficerie 305, pl. 76; Alfieri, Ori e argenti dell' Emilia antica, figs. 4–6.

24 Hague (Becatti, 330, pl. 81); St. Louis 384.23; Berlin 293; Reinach, op. cit., pl. 18.9; Ars Antiqua (Luzern) i, pl. 63.140a,b (a = Schefold, Meisterwerke no. 586); B.M.C. Rings 218, pl. 6, 219, 908, pl. 23 (the figure gone); BMQ ix, 1934–5, pl. 5c; Naples 26408, Siviero, pls. 84–5; Guilhou, Sotheby, 9–121 Nov. 1937, pl. 3.67.

25 E.g., Berlin 30219 (Becatti, 319, pl. 80). I take no account here of other ring types with relief devices—the plain oval bezels or gold scarabs.

26 Cf. also the border to the relief shield-bezel ring, Coche de la Ferté, Les bijoux antiques, pl. 17.2–3.

27 As B.M.C. Rings 704, pl. 18 (Becatti, 307, pl. 76).

28 As the plaque, Coche de la Ferté, op. cit., pl. 32.4, or the Villa Giulia brooch with a satyr, Becatti, 282, pl. 73. Compare the roughened backgrounds to many stone reliefs, or the stippling used to bring out the background on even earlier bronzes (cf. Cretan Coll. in Oxford 84–6).

29 As the fine Vatican examples, Becatti, 360–1, pl. 92 (von Vacano, pl. 76) or B.M.C. Jewellery 2284–5, 2307, pls. 45–6, figs. 74–5.

The photographs of the Oxford rings were taken by the Museum photographer, except for nos. 9, 10, 15, 31, 33, 34, by the writer. Of the Fortnum Group rings in other collections I am indebted to Museum authorities for photographs and permission to publish them. The photographs of the rings in London and the Cabinet des Médailles, Paris are my own. For help in these and other matters I have to thank: N. Alfieri (Ferrara), G. Caputo (Florence), P. Devambez (Louvre, Paris), R. A. Higgins and D. Strong (London), M. Moretti (Tarquinia, Rome), G. le Rider and F. Rosswag (Cabinet des Médailles, Paris), E. Rohde (Berlin), J. B. Ward-Perkins.