Description:

Ancient Near East, Persia (today's Iran), ca. 224 to 651 CE. A wonderful example of ancient workmanship in high karat gold. 8-pointed pendant is in the shape of a star with granulation around its circumference. Inlaid with ancient nugget of turquoise. It can be hung either vertically or horizontally. Eminently wearable in its beautiful condition. Size: 1-1/4" at widest (3 cm).

Granulation was the type of decoration in which tiny balls of gold are applied to a surface in geometric or linear patterns or massed to fill in parts of a decoration. First used as early as the 3rd millennium BCE, it was known in western Asia and Egypt. The technique as practiced by the ancient Greeks, especially immediately following the Mycenaean Age, achieved an amazing fineness and could produce a texture of great richness.

The Sassanian Dynasty was the last pre-Islamic Persian Empire, which succeeded the Parthian Empire, and was recognized as one of the two main powers in Western Asia and Europe, alongside the Roman Empire and the Byzantine Empire, for a period of more than 400 years. It encompassed all of today's Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, eastern Syria, the Caucasus (Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Dagestan), southwestern Central Asia, part of Turkey, some parts of the Arabian Peninsula, the Persian Gulf, and southwestern Pakistan.

Provenance: Acquired in the early 1970s by the present owner from an old French collection.

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#110723

  • Condition: Very fine and wearable!

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October 22, 2015 8:00 AM MDT
Louisville, CO, US

Artemis Fine Arts

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,000
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $25,000