Athena Cameo Fragment
Roman, First Centuries BC to AD
Banded agate,
Height: 2 1/2 inches.

This cameo fragment is one of my most prized possessions. Broken at the chest, and just above the helmet, preserved is the head, helmet, and part of the aegis with the medusa head in the center with snakes tied below it, with two snake heads beside it. Visible just to the right of the medusa is a coil of another snake, the aegis must have been like that of the Farnese Athena which has snakes curling around the edges of the aegis. The helmet of this Athena has four horses on this side, galloping across the visor, one ear flap is raised and chiped. The helmet had a triple crest, with hipogryphs supporting the side crest, and a couchant lion or sphynx supporting the central crest, only part its body is preserved in this fragment. You can make out the trailing horsetail crest on the broken edge just behind the helmet. The face is of trancendent beauty, perfect in its classical form capturing the cold beauty of the goddess.

This must have been a fragment of a larger cameo, perhaps even a full figure, as it is quite a thick piece of agate with a rough unfinished back. As such it is an extremely important object, as well as a beautiful one.

One thing about an object of such rarity is that it has no clear parallels, and there are some things about it that are anomalous; the material which lacks the clear contrast typical of Roman cameos, and the earring which is unlike others I have seen in such cameos. The material is close to that of the Tazza Farnese, in color and lack of contrast; and the earring is a shape that is found in classical jewelry, and is well within the realm of possibility. The factors supporting its antiquity besides its beauty, are its condition, and its history. It is a fragment, and not carved to be one, you can see where elements are broken and incomplete in a way you could not fake. As we know where this gem has been for at least 150 years, at the latest time it could have been made, the early 19th Century, even contemporary cameos were of enormous value, and it strains credulity to imagine a talented gem carver of the time, creating a complete object and then smashing it up, and risking the carving altogether. It is the nature of the rare to have few or no parallels, this gem is "nonpareile".

Provenance:

- Sir John Charles Robinson (c.1824-1913) Collection
- Sir Francis Cook (1817-1901) Collection, Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey
- Wyndham Francis Cook (d. 1905) Collection
- Humphrey W. Cook Collection, London (then published in Cecil H. Smith & C. Amy Hutton, Catalogue of the Antiquities in the Collection of the Late Wyndham Francis Cook, Esquire., London 1908.
- Christie, Manson & Woods, London, July 14th, 1925, lot 180, lot 180, sold for £84 to Brummer. This is possibly Ernest Brummer (1891-1964). Though not in his sale-catalogues (Egyptian Art: Sothebys London November 1964, Ancient Art: Spink-Koller Zurich October 1979), this provenance is possible as several pieces were given to the Duke University Museum in 1966, and other pieces might also have been sold.

Plaster cast of cameo

View of the back, showing the unpolished state.
It is a thick piece of agate.