Roman Black Onyx Gemstone with Oxen
1st-2nd century A.D. Engraved with two bulls lying side by side, one with the head in profile, the other facing, tree to the field. See Richter, G.M.A., Catalogue of engraved gems of the classical style, New York, 1920, for similar late Minoan iconography; for identical Roman iconography see Furtwängler, A., Die antiken Gemmen: Geschichte der Steinschneidekunst im Klassischen Altertum, Leipzig and Berlin, 1900, fig.2, pl. XLV. 0.62 grams, 11 mm (3/8 in.).

Acquired in the late 1980s-early 1990s. Important North West London collection. The iconography of two bulls derives already from Achaean models, like the black onyx example in the Metropolitan Museum (Richter, 1920, pl.2,no.3). The model was inherited by the classical world, and inherited from the Greeks by the Romans (Furtwängler mentions gemstones in carnelian, nos.5547-5548-5549 at the Berlin Museum).