Roman Silver Pendant Teardrop Shaped 2nd Century

Description

Heading: Roman silver pendant teardrop shaped

Material: Roman Silver and semi-precious stone

Period: Roman imperial

Date: c2nd Century

Origin: Italy

Condition: Fine

Description: A delicate sheet-silver inverted teardrop-shaped pendant. with twisted wire border and central cell with stone/glass cabochon. bead finial (?gold) and suspension loop above.

Size and Weight: 20mm. 0.67g

Features and Provenance: Our beautiful example is typical of a conservative piece of Roman jewellery; they were often extremely elaborate. Pendants were worn by both sexes. but tended to be on long chains or thongs rather than the choker type and may have been worn as a charm or votive piece. being considered to have protective powers. The accessibility of gemstones. both of precious and semi-precious form and metals of all descriptions gave rise to an insatiable love of jewellery. It displayed their status as well as wealth and some women wore so much that it has been recorded that their husband’s complained. For men (apart from a few emperors). a simple pendant necklace with the emperor’s visage would suffice.

Condition Summary. This varies with the age of the artefact and there are grades between

Extremely Fine (EF). Very slight traces of wear. all parts of pattern etc present. visible and clear

Very Fine (VF). Some signs of wear on the higher parts of the relief. all parts of pattern etc present. but may be worn

Fine (F). Wear on the artefact and parts of item and pattern etc may be missing or not visible