Finger Ring (300s BCE or later): Art, History and Details

Finger Ring (300s BCE or later) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

This silver signet ring depicts a kneeling figure facing left in a heavy robe, with hands outstretched and wearing a headdress. The figure is probably a priest or priestess making an offering at an unseen altar. Less skilled carving and the worn surface make the image difficult to interpret, especially the object in the figure’s right hand.

Object facts

• Title: Finger Ring
• Date: 300s BCE or later
• Culture: Greece
• Type: Jewelry
• Technique: silver
• Dimensions: Diameter: 2 cm (13/16 in.); Bezel: 0.8 x 1.4 cm (5/16 x 9/16 in.)
• Collection: GR - Greek
• Department: Greek and Roman Art
• Accession number: 1963.98

A detail from the museum

When signet rings were stamped, the image would be reversed on the stamped surface.

Collection credit

Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Severance A. Millikin

Further reading listed by the museum

• Lee, Sherman E. “Year in Review for 1963.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 50, no. 10 (1963): 263–94.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.