During the Meiji period, Japanese cloisonné enamel reached a technical peak, making goods that were far superior to anything before available. The “Golden Age” of Japanese enamels occurred between 1890 and 1910.

Satsuma porcelain was the name given to pottery from Satsuma region that was heavily adorned with gilding and enamel. These products received significant recognition in the West.

Satsuma clay is one of the most well-known Japanese pottery forms, sometimes lavishly painted with great detail and gold. Satsuma pottery has a significantly longer history, dating back to roughly 1600, when it was mainly plain and made of dark clay, unlike the 19th-century pieces manufactured for export to the West.

CONDITION: Signs of ware. The item has been described to the best of our knowledge. If you have any questions, please refer to the photographs and send an email.

The post A SATSUMA CERAMIC BOX AND LID appeared first on Gemme Nummarie.

The Romans adopted the sign because they valued Greek culture. In Rome, they represented victory in warfare. Military leaders and emperors frequently wore them following a fight. It was also utilised in Ancient Rome, when Roman Emperors were frequently depicted wearing laurel wreaths. Greece presented laurel wreaths to champions in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

CONDITION: Signs of ware. The item has been described to the best of our knowledge. If you have any questions, please refer to the photographs and send an email.

The post A ROMAN CARNELIAN INTAGLIO – LAUREL WREATH appeared first on Gemme Nummarie.

Poets and artists frequently used a vessel as a symbol of the symposia; the vessel represented the blending and shifting of social, sexual, and cultural states as well as the breaking down of boundaries that the banquet permitted.

The Hellenistic period in classical antiquity refers to the period in Mediterranean history that followed Classical Greece, from the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC to the death of Cleopatra VII in 30 BC. The uprising of the Roman Empire at the Battle of Actium in 31 BC and the subsequent Roman conquest of Ptolemaic Egypt in 31 BC marked the end of the last significant Hellenistic kingdom.

During the Hellenistic period, Greek cultural influence reached its peak in the Mediterranean and beyond. Prosperity and progress in the arts, literature, theatre, architecture, music, mathematics, philosophy, and science characterize the era. The Hellenistic period saw the rise of New Comedy and Alexandrian poetry.

CONDITION: Signs of ware. The item has been described to the best of our knowledge. If you have any questions, please refer to the photographs and send an email.

The post A ROMAN AMETHYST INTAGLIO – VESSEL appeared first on Gemme Nummarie.

The post A CHINESE FAMILLE VERTE PORCELAIN DISH – KANGXI PERIOD appeared first on Gemme Nummarie.

It is iconography that refers to the abundance and prosperity.

Accompanied by the Certificate of Authenticity.

CONDITION: Good condition. Some minor chips to the edges. The item has been described to the best of our knowledge. If you have any questions, please refer to the photographs and send an email.

The post ROMAN CARNELIAN INTAGLIO – STALKS OF WHEAT appeared first on Gemme Nummarie.

The Guerrero region of modern southwestern Mexico, which encompasses alluvial plains and barren mountainous areas, was the epicenter of the Mezcala and Chontal stone carving traditions.
The Mezcala sculptural style emphasizes geometric abstraction in both human figures and architectural models whereas Chontal works have an added naturalism. Even though this lapidary tradition is placed in the Preclassic period, ca. 300-100 B. C., it is clear that these portable stone figures were preserved by later Mesoamerican peoples as heirlooms. In fact, large numbers have been in excavated in ritual caches at the Templo Mayor, the main temple of the fifteenth-century Aztecs (Mexica) of Tenochititlan (Mexico City).

In the 20th century, these minimalistic Mezcala and Chontal art works attracted such artists as Diego Rivera, Frida Kahlo and Miguel Covarrubias, the latter, comparing them to the serene and monumental Cycladic style of ancient Greece.

Accompanied by the Certificate of Authenticity.

CONDITION: Good condition. The item has been described to the best of our knowledge. If you have any questions, please refer to the photographs and send an email.

The post GUERRERO CHONTAL STONE FIGURE appeared first on Gemme Nummarie.

After the defeat of Darius III of Persia, Bactria continued to offer resistance against Alexander the Great, led by Bessus, who had proclaimed himself successor to Darius. Alexander conquered it with great difficulty between 329-327 B.C., largely with the help of local auxiliary forces. During his stay there, Alexander married a Bactrian woman, Roxanne, to aid his effort of controlling the region.

After Alexander’s death, Bactria was part of the Seleucid Empire. The many difficulties against which the Seleucid kings had to fight and the attacks of Ptolemy II of Egypt gave Diodotus, satrap of Bactria, the opportunity to declare independence (about 255 B.C.) and conquer Sogdiana, founding the Indo-Greek Kingdom.

CONDITION: Good condition. There is some wear and tear, but overall the jar is completely intact. The item has been described to the best of our knowledge. If you have any questions, please refer to the photographs and send an email.

The post ALABASTER JAR IN BACTRIAN STYLE appeared first on Gemme Nummarie.

CONDITION: Good condition with minor wear and firing irregularities like crackling, cracks, glaze recesses, dark spots, and pitting. Minor losses and some fritting to the edges. The item has been described to the best of our knowledge. If you have any questions, please refer to the photographs and send an email.

The post A QINGBAI PORCELAIN ‘CHRYSANTHEMUM’ BOX AND COVER, SONG-YUAN DYNASTY appeared first on Gemme Nummarie.

A cylinder seal is a compact cylindrical object, usually measuring around one inch (2 to 3 cm) in length, that is adorned with inscriptions or pictorial depictions, or sometimes both. It was employed in ancient civilizations to imprint its design into a flat surface.

Cylinder seal impressions were used as an administrative tool, a type of signature, and for branding products. The cylinders were used as jewellery and mystical amulets. In subsequent centuries, they were employed to notarize or certify several imprints of clay documents. Graves and other locations containing valuable things like as gold, silver, beads, and jewels sometimes added one or two cylinder seals as honourable burial gifts.

Most Babylonian cylinder seals develop an image by making depressions in the cylinder surface to create bumps on the imprint. They are usually employed on wet clay and produce images on fabric and other comparable two-dimensional surfaces.

Cylinder seals were invented around 3500 BC in the Near East. Other sources, however, date the earliest cylinder seals to a much earlier time, to the Late Neolithic period (7600-6000 BC) in Syria, hundreds of years before the invention of writing.

CONDITION: Good condition. There is some wear and tear, but the iconography is completely intact. The item has been described to the best of our knowledge. If you have any questions, please refer to the photographs and send an email.

The post CYLINDER SEAL WITH FIGHTING SCENE appeared first on Gemme Nummarie.