⁵⁄₈ in. (1.5 cm.) long

Giorgio Sangiorgi (1886-1965), Rome, acquired and brought to Switzerland, late 1930s; thence by continuous descent to the current owner.

J. Boardman and C. Wagner, Masterpieces in Miniature: Engraved Gems from Prehistory to the Present, London, 2018, p. 39, no. 32.

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Lot Essay

The simple beetle has ridged carination dividing the elytra. In addition to the normal vertical perforation, there is an additional horizontal one through the sides. The underside has a long-haired sphinx seated with one paw raised, enclosed within a hatched border. The exergue is cross-hatched. The style of the face, hair and wings links this to Boardman’s Sphinx-and-Youth Group I, perhaps the work of a single artist (see pp. 65-71 in Archaic Greek Gems).