centred with a yellow gold rosette, the petals comprising of stylised amphora, the centre decorated with granulation and wirework, supported either side by sphynx like creatures with serpent tales, the necklace consisting of garnet beads threaded on gold wires flanked by beaded caps.
Signed with conjoined Cs for Castellani
Length: 40cm
A closely comparable garnet necklace was bequeathed by Alfredo Castellani to the Museo Nazionale Etrusco housed in the Villa Giulia in Rome.
The design of the necklace is taken almost directly from antiquity. Examples of closely comparable Etruscan necklaces can be found in the collection of the Louvre in Paris, acquired by the French state around the same time as the Campana Collection, circa 1863. An engraving of these necklaces, including one similarly centred with a rosette, was published in ‘Etrurie et les Étrusques ou dix ans de fouilles dans les Maremmes toscanes’ (Paris, 1862-64) published by Ambroise Firmin Didot.
