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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 9597462, member: 5833&quot;]The ring itself is known as a collector&#039;s mount, very common in the late Georgian/Regency period.&nbsp; Suggests owner believed it to be an antiquity or copy of an antiquity.</p><p><br /></p><p>Houseful is quite right, the figure has a bow &amp; is in fact Cupid.&nbsp; This is by neoclassical artist Bertel Thorvaldsen:</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]465258[/ATTACH] </p><p><br /></p><p>The subject was a popular one, part of a more general theme of the conquering power of love.&nbsp; If you fill in 6679 in the green box for gem number at this site, you will see a whole series of gem impressions with Cupid on a lion.&nbsp; If you switch the view to Text, you can read a description of each:</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.carc.ox.ac.uk/XDB/ASP/browseGemsPlates.asp?new=true&amp;imageSize=3&amp;LastMenuPageID=Browse+Plates&amp;HomePage=/carc/Gems2/James-Tassie&amp;firstField=gemNumber" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.carc.ox.ac.uk/XDB/ASP/browseGemsPlates.asp?new=true&amp;imageSize=3&amp;LastMenuPageID=Browse+Plates&amp;HomePage=/carc/Gems2/James-Tassie&amp;firstField=gemNumber" rel="nofollow">https://www.carc.ox.ac.uk/XDB/ASP/browseGemsPlates.asp?new=true&amp;imageSize=3&amp;LastMenuPageID=Browse+Plates&amp;HomePage=/carc/Gems2/James-Tassie&amp;firstField=gemNumber</a></p><p><br /></p><p>(Click on picture to enlarge.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Even a genuine expert could not tell you with 100% certainty whether the intaglio was engraved 2,000 years ago or 200 years ago with only photos to go by, possibly not even with it in hand.&nbsp; There is also the possibility that it is glass.</p><p><br /></p><p>I&#039;m surprised the back has been covered, but it also looks like the shank may have been replaced.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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