Engraved gems : from antiquity to the present / edited by B.J.L. van den Bercken & V.C.P. Baan.

Format:

Book

Conference/Event

Contributor:

Bercken, Ben van den, editor.

Baan, V. C. P., editor.

George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Conference Name:

From Cylinder Seals to Lippert's Dactyliotheca (2016 : Leiden, Netherlands)

Series:

Papers on archaeology of the Leiden Museum of Antiquities ; 14.

Papers on archaeology of the Leiden Museum of Antiquities, 2034-550X ; PALMA 14

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Rijksmuseum van Oudheden te Leiden--Congresses.

Rijksmuseum van Oudheden te Leiden.

Gems--History--Congresses.

Gems.

Glyptics--History--Congresses.

Glyptics.

Seals (Numismatics)--History--Congresses.

Seals (Numismatics).

Seals (Numismatics)--History.

History.

Genre:

Conference papers and proceedings.

History.

Physical Description:

182 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), chart, facsimile, portraits ; 28 cm.

Place of Publication:

Leiden : Sidestone Press, [2017]

Summary:

Many are no larger than a fingertip. They are engraved with symbols, magic spells and images of gods, animals and emperors. These stones were used for various purposes. The earliest ones served as seals for making impressions in soft materials. Later engraved gems were worn or carried as personal ornaments - usually rings, but sometimes talismans or amulets. The exquisite engraved designs were thought to imbue the gems with special powers. For example, the gods and rituals depicted on cylinder seals from Mesopotamia were thought to protect property and to lend force to agreements marked with the seals. This edited volume discusses some of the finest and most exceptional precious and semi-precious stones from the collection of the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities - more than 5.800 engraved gems from the ancient Near East, Egypt, the classical world, renaissance and 17th-20th centuries - and other special collections throughout Europe. Meet the people behind engraved gems: gem engravers, the people that used the gems, the people that re-used them and above all the gem collectors. This is the first major publication on engraved gems in the collection of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden since 1978

Contents:

Preface / Wim Weijland ; Introduction / Ben van den Bercken ; 1. Roman Gems in Old Collections and in Modern Archaeology / Martin Henig ; 2. Cassandra on Seals. Ring Stone Images as Self-Representation: an Example / Marianne Kleibrink ; 3. Some Cameos in Leiden - Roman to Neoclassicism / Gertrud Platz-Horster ; 4. The Original RMO Engraved Gem Collection: Gem Identification and Applied Research Techniques / Hanco Zwaan and Christine Swaving ; 5. An Important Collection of Mesopotamian Cylinder Seals / Diederik J.W. Meijer ; 6. Sasanian Seals: Owners and Re-users / Rika Gyselen ; 7. Invocations to Hermes and Aphrodite on Two Engraved Gems in Leiden / Attilio Mastrocinque ; 8. The Importance of Gems in the Work of Peter Paul Rubens 1577-1640 / Marcia Pointon ; 9. Post-Classical Cameos, their Makers and Users / Claudia Wagner ; 10. Princely Splendour: Some Cameo Vessels from the Middle of the Seventeenth Century and their Patrons / Jørgen Hein ; 11. ?A Treasure, a Schoolmaster, a Pass-Time? Dactyliothecae in the 18th and 19th Centuries and their Function as Teaching Aids in Schools and Universities / Valentin Kockel ; 12. Non Grylloi, Baskania Sunt. On the Significance of the So Called Grylloi/Grilli or Grylli in Greek and Roman Glyptics / Carina Weiss ; 13. Another Perspective on the So Called Grylloi / Selkit Verberk ; 14. Some Unpublished Scarabs from the Leiden Collection / Ben van den Bercken.

Notes:

Proceedings of international conference "From cylinder seals to Lippert's dactyliotheca", held November 2-4, 2016 in Leiden.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 167-182).

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the George Clapp Vaillant Book Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Van den Bercken, Ben. Engraved Gems.

ISBN:

9789088905056

9088905053

9789088905063

9088905061

OCLC:

1028535531

Publisher Number:

9789088905063