A gold swivel ring with fluted shank and mounted with an early 19th century oval shaped

A gold swivel ring with fluted shank and mounted with an early 19th century oval shaped, orange coloured and slightly striated carnelian intaglio. Finely carved with the standing figure of Jason holding The Golden Fleece and bearing the spurious Greek signature of Dioskourides (C 40 BC - C AD10). 3cm high, 1.7cm wide.

Similar to those commissioned by Prince Stanislas Poniatowski (1754 - 1833) and possibly carved by Giovanni Calandrelli (1748 - 1852). Cades includes a copy of a similar but unsigned gem in his section for the engraver Giovanni Callandrelli (Cades, Libro 74, no.916) kept in The German Institute in Rome.

Dioskourides was a famous Greek gem engraver working principally in Italy and especially for the Caesar family including the Emperor Augustus.

The figure of Jason is inspired from the monumental statue created by Bertel Thorvaldsen (1770 - 1844) and completed in 1828.

In 1999, an extract written by Gertrud Seidmann appeared in the Babesch Journal in which she demonstrated the inspiration of this figure of Jason as proof that the gem could not have been of Classical origin, as had been believed in New York in 1995.

Relevant information and images are available in The Beazley Archive, The Ashmolean, Oxford.

From the collection of the late Gertrud Seidmann.