{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O106586"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O106586/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AF1529/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AF1529/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AF1529","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O106586/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O106586","accessionNumber":"579-1871","objectType":"Intaglio","titles":[{"title":"Stag","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"The art of engraving gemstones can be traced back to ancient Greece in the 8th century BC and earlier. Techniques passed down to the Egyptians and then to the Romans. There were major revivals of interest in engraved gems in Europe during the Byantine era, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and again in the 18th and 19th centuries. At each stage cameos and intaglios, these skillful carvings on a minute scale, were much prized and collected, sometimes as symbols of power mounted in jewelled settings, sometimes as small objects for private devotion or enjoyment. This intaglio seal stone was made somewhere in the eastern reaches of the Roman empire. In the Sassanian art of Persia, now modern-day Iraq, hunting was an important source for images, and depictions of creatures of the chase such as stags were popular subjects.","physicalDescription":"Circular intaglio. Surface very crazed and worn. Depicting a stag with spreading antlers, prancing to right.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"maker","id":"x40240"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"onyx","id":"AAT11136"},{"text":"silver-gilt","id":"x37998"},{"text":"layered agate","id":"x42446"},{"text":"gemstone","id":"AAT201964"},{"text":"microquartz","id":"x43759"}],"techniques":[{"text":"gem engraving","id":"x41224"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Engraved gemstone; Layered and mottled agate, variety 'onyx', set in silver-gilt ring","categories":[{"text":"Jewellery","id":"THES48930"},{"text":"Sculpture","id":"THES48896"},{"text":"Gemstones","id":"THES270329"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2006AF1529"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"032","id":"THES395777"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Intaglio","id":""}],[{"text":"Ring","id":"x43339"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"Iraq","id":"x28917"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""},{"place":{"text":"India","id":"x29790"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"Between 250 and 550 CE","earliest":"0250-01-01","latest":"0550-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Diameter","value":"11.5","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"approximate","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"Exact dimensions obscured by setting","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"Ex Waterton Collection. Edmund Waterton (1830-87) is referred to as one of a group of 'pioneer collectors' by Diana Scarisbrick, 'C.D.E. Fortnum as a collector of rings and gems', <u>C.D.E. Fortnum and the collecting and study of applied arts and sculpture in Victorian England</u>, Ed: Ben Thomas and Timothy Wilson, 1999. His collection of approximately 760 rings, formed with the aim of illustrating the history of rings of all period and types, was acquired by the Museum in 1871 and 1899.  Waterton, in 1868 'of Walton Castle, near Wakefield, in the county of York, but now residing at Ostend in the Kingdom of Belgium', got into financial difficulties, and was later to be declared bankrupt. The collection of rings was held as security against a loan by the jeweller Robert Phillips for two years from March of that year.  The loan was to be repaid by Waterton by March 1870, but the deadline was not met. Phillips having first contacted the Museum regarding the possible purchase of the rings in 1869, the purchase was recommended by the Board of the Museum in a minute of 20 April 1871. The majority of the rings are held in Metalwork Section, a small number in Sculpture Section.\n\nHistorical significance: Professor Sir John Boardman, who examined this gem in 2009, is of the opinion that it is Central Asian, Sassanian or Indian, third to sixth century.  It can be compared with Martin Henig, <u>Classical Gems.  Ancient and Modern Intaglios and Cameos in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge</u>, 1994, nos. 435-8, pp. 196-7.","historicalContext":"Engraved gemstones of all dates were widely collected in Italy in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Many were brought back by British Grand Tourists, and important collections were formed.","briefDescription":"Intaglio, circular layered agate, variety 'onyx', set in silver-gilt ring, depicting a stag, Sassanian (Iraq) or Indian, between 250 and 550","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<font -u>List of Objects in the Art Division, South Kensington, Acquired During the Year 1871, Arranged According to the Dates of Acquisition.</font> London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode for H.M.S.O., p. 46"}],"production":"Attribution note: Brownish black/white/black layers. The uppermost brownish black layer is mottled. It lies over a white layer, both of these layers are translucent; the lowermost black layer is opaque and granular (J Whalley, May 2009).","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"Stag","id":"x30301"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["579-1871"],"accessionNumberNum":"579","accessionNumberPrefix":"","accessionYear":1871,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-07-13","recordCreationDate":"2004-10-20","availableToBook":true}}