Ancient Ring - SKU 1380

This ancient ring features a finely carved intaglio in a light-green gem, perhaps of a Roman emperor, set in an exquisitely sculpted band of gleaming 24-karat yellow gold.

Historically, intaglios were carved from hard stones such as agate, jasper and carnelian to be used as wax seals to identify and authenticate documents. Because of the difficulty in carving hard gemstones, owning an intaglio, especially one in a signet ring, was a sign of high status.

According to Sotheby’s, finely carved intaglios such as this were the most desirable, not just because of the craftsmanship involved, but because of how difficult they made it to forge the resulting wax seal.