Cameo inscribed in Greek 'OLYMPI ZHCAIC', oval layered agate, variety 'sardonyx', set in silver-gilt ring; Italy, 350-450

Horizontal oval cameo. White translucent over reddish brown translucent layered agate, variety 'sardonyx'. Inscription in two lines, cut from upper white layer, with outer raised border also cut from white layer. Set in silver-gilt ring.

Ex Waterton Collection. Bought by the Museum following inclusion in Christie's Sale (undated, not held), lot 45. Edmund Waterton (1830-87) is referred to as one of a group of 'pioneer collectors' by Diana Scarisbrick, 'C.D.E. Fortunum as a collector of rings and gems', C.D.E. Fortnum and the collecting and study of applied arts and sculpture in Victorian England, Ed: Ben Thomas and Timothy Wilson, 1999. His collection of approximately 760 rings, formed with the aim of illustrating the history of rings of all period and types, was acquired by the Museum in 1871 and 1899. Waterton, in 1868 'of Walton Castle, near Wakefield, in the county of York, but now residing at Ostend in the Kingdom of Belgium', got into financial difficulties, and was later to be declared bankrupt. The collection of rings was held as security against a loan by the jeweller Robert Phillips for two years from March of that year. The loan was to be repaid by Waterton by March 1870, but the deadline was not met. Phillips having first contacted the Museum regarding the possible purchase of the rings in 1869, the purchase was recommended by the Board of the Museum in a minute of 20 April 1871. The majority of the rings are held in Metalwork Section, a small number in Sculpture Section.

Historical significance: For a discussion of inscriptions of this type, see Jeffrey Spier, Late Antique and Early Christian Gems, Weisbaden, 2007, pp. 135-7.

Engraved gemstones of all dates were widely collected in Italy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Many were brought back by British Grand Tourists, and important collections were formed.

Attribution note: White translucent over reddish brown translucent. Layers appear artifically induced - a technique quite usual for this period (J Whalley, May 2009).

The art of engraving gemstones can be traced back to ancient Greece in the 8th century BC and earlier. Techniques passed down to the Egyptians and then to the Romans. There were major revivals of interest in engraved gems in Europe during the Byantine era, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and again in the 18th and 19th centuries. At each stage cameos and intaglios, these skillful carvings on a minute scale, were much prized and collected, sometimes as symbols of power mounted in jewelled settings, sometimes as small objects for private devotion or enjoyment. Based in an earlier, Greek, tradition, gems such as this cameo, which persisted into the fifth and sixth centuries after the birth of Christ, were popular as keepsakes given to a friend or loved-one. Messages in Greek, or far less commonly in Latin, might consist of the name of the intended owner together with an exhortation, such as here, to 'Live', or a wish for 'Harmony'. Other later cameo inscriptions had religious significance and bore Christian names and invocations such as 'Christ help'.

582-1871