Bring your auction to collectors worldwide!
Get listed nowBy subscribing, you are agreeing to the privacy policy. Unsubscribe anytime.
Barnebys HQ
Brahegatan 10
BOX 5038
114 37 Stockholm
All auctions / Jewellery & Gems / Roman Signet Ring with Male Bust in Profile
Roman, Imperial period. A compact cast finger ring whose flattened oval bezel carries a male bust in low relief, shown in profile and facing left, the head set above a suggestion of drapery at the shoulder. The leaded bronze hoop swells from a narrow band into thickened shoulders that rise to meet the bezel, a profile typical of Imperial-period seal rings intended for daily wear. Long burial has drawn a green and earthen patina across the surface. Rings of this type served as personal seals, pressed into wax or clay to close correspondence and authenticate goods, so the device was less ornament than signature. The portrait may represent an emperor, a patron, or the owner himself; without a legend the identification stays open, and the small hoop diameter suggests a woman or youth wore it. Roman law and custom made the signet ring an instrument of legal identity. Under the Republic the gold ring was restricted to senators and equestrians, but by the Imperial centuries seal rings in copper alloys circulated broadly among freedmen, soldiers, merchants, and household administrators, who needed a device to close a document or stamp a shipment. Pliny the Elder complained in his Natural History that the ring had become the mark of a man's credit rather than his birth. The alloy here is a leaded bronze, a mixture the Roman workshops favored for cast ornament: the added lead lowers the melting point and thickens the flow of the molten metal, letting it fill fine intaglio and relief detail in a small mold before it chills. The trade-off is a softer, more brittle finished object, which is why such rings were cast rather than forged and why bezel relief on them often survives worn. Please note that this ring contains up to 22.2% lead and is not recommended for wear. Item # 204639
Estimate:£188.49
To the auctionView all items fromArtemis Fine ArtsorJewellery & Gems
Estimate:
£188.49
Antique Coral Cameo Depicting a Bacchante in Gold, as a Pendant, c. 1910
10/08/2026
£1,109.52
Bring your auction to collectors worldwide!
Get listed now
A 16th - 17th century intaglio carnelian inset ring, the oval carnelian
06/24/2026
£1,600
Est: £700
