Box-Bezel Ring with Internal “Garden” Scene

This elaborate gold ring with an oval, box-shaped bezel holds a large domed rock crystal that functions as a lens onto a miniature garden scene. Various details are visible through the stone: oak leaves with filigree edges and veins, rosettes complete with granulated centers, filigree and granulated petals, twisted wire “branches,” a blue glass bead, enamel filled leaves, and a filigree and enamel bird.

Large gold spheres surround the crystal. The outer walls of the box are adorned with finely granulated rhomboids alternating with upright and pendant triangles. The hoop has a tripartite structure: two bands of gold wire flank a central element with additional filigree and granules that imitate the appearance of knotted wood, alluding to the club of Herakles. Above where they join the box, the wires terminate in volutes with granulated rosettes. Below, they are tied in a Herakles knot. Superimposed on the knot is a diamond-shaped cloison holding a garnet flanked by now empty cloisons in the shape of ivy leaves.

Out of the fifteen surviving similar rings with oval or rectangular box-shaped bezels, the majority feature large emerald or colored glass cabochons. Only five exhibit complex floral scenes under rock crystal, including one excavated in a mid-second century BCE female tomb in Patras, Greece. The origin of these rings, however, is uncertain although they have been often attributed to Ptolemaic Alexandria.