Who can tell me about this ring

He looks like Don Quixote.

 

In drag?

It is an intaglio, but maybe cameo expert @Bronwen can tell you more anyway.

 

After the explosion.

 

Brought over from first thread. Adam1, are you in Britain?

As AJ (Happy Birthday @Any Jewelry ) said, the ring is set with an intaglio, an engraved gem on which the design has been engraved down into the stone, so it is below the surface, the opposite of a cameo, on which the design is raised above the background surface.

I believe the figure is Zeus/Jupiter/Jove, enthroned, holding a scepter, wearing a laurel or oak wreath.



This strikes me as being glass, but this can be difficult to determine, even with the piece in hand, much less from photos. Glass does not necessarily mean modern by any means; the Romans turned out lots of glass copies of gems first engraved in stone. The color & the way the scene is cut off at the edges in a couple of places are what seem 'off' to me for stone.

The metal gives the impression of an excavated Roman iron ring. I'm really wading in out of my depth here. I have not studied ancient finger rings, just see them in the course of other pursuits, so could be completely off here, but I don't think the way this ring is constructed was used in antiquity. Something I have definitely observed in ancient rings is that no matter which direction the design runs, an oval gem is almost always (if not always; I am suspicious about the authenticity of ones that violate this rule) mounted so that the long axis is perpendicular to the length of the finger, even when that means, as it would in this case, that the scene is sideways to both the wearer & a viewer.

If this is a forgery, probably dates mid-18 - early 19th century, when engraved gem collecting was a madness & fakes became so numerous the market collapsed due to buyer distrust. Another field where I know only a very little. Perhaps in countries where Roman jewellery is still unearthed fakes are still made.

If I get the chance, will pull out the enormous book I have on this subject & see if I can learn more about the implications of the ring's construction & the technique used to engrave the original gem.

 

A Minoan or Mycenaean Don Quixote...quixotic ?

 

Okay, what does it say about me that when I first saw the ring I thought it was Chinese writing?

 

It's all Greek to me !

 

Snort.

 

Nope, nope, you're not alone. Did not see a person even remotely until someone point it out. To be fair to you and I though, it's quite a disarticulated person.

 

I live in Norway.i bought this ring frome an old women teld me that ring is frome old iran sivilisation 17th material is mother of pearls. Thank you very much

 

that's a nice story......maybe some truth...

 

Iranian Civilization 17th century ?

 

Now that you say it, it does look like mother of pearl. I was operating on the assumption that we were looking at a supposed Roman antiquity, & mother of pearl is a material you do not see used for their (surviving) intaglios.

If this image is from pre-Islamic Iran, I am out of my depth. I wouldn't know Mithras from Mithrandir. Have you done any research following the leads the lady gave you?

 

I saw the ancient Middle Eastern connection, and also thought mother of pearl. Except I would have thought a copy of an ancient Mesopotamian seal.
I have replica Mesopotamian cylinder seals that have similar figures.

Afghanistan and neighbouring Central Asian countries have a similar, sketch-like carving style for intaglios.

 

Detail of a Mesopotamian Isin-Larsa period (ca. 1900–1800 BCE) cylinder seal:


https://www.spurlock.illinois.edu/collections/notable-collections/profiles/cylinder-seals.html

 

Your answer is of great importance thank you very much. What do you think about this ring, is very old? Century?

 

The sketch-like intaglio is much more recent than Ancient Mesopotamia or Ancient Iran.
I think 19th century at the earliest, but I could be wrong.

 

Thank you. I have a pair of cupid i have not found any information about. Can you se it?
Look at pictures