Crescent Pectoral with a Figure on a Lion
Kushan style · 18.4K gold
A broad crescent of sheet gold, twenty centimetres across, with a figure seated on a lion at the centre and riders and animals running round the horns.
- Form
- Repoussé sheet-gold pectoral
- Gold
- 18.4 karat — 76.5% gold by XRF
- Weight
- 44 g
- Dimensions
- 18 × 20.3 cm (7 ⅛ × 8 in.)
- Style
- Kushan style; made now
- Reference
- CG-03
$5,900
In stock. Price includes packing; insured shipping is quoted at cost once we know where it is going. This piece is priced by weight against the gold price. To buy it, or to ask anything first, write to us — we reply the same day and send an invoice you can pay by card or transfer.
Enquire about this pieceThe crescent collar — a lunate sheet of gold worn at the base of the throat — is among the most imposing forms in the jewellery of Central Asia and the Kushan world. This one is worked entirely in repoussé: the design pushed out from behind and sharpened from the front, with rows of raised dots marking the borders.
At the centre a frontal figure sits on a lion; to either side, horsemen and animals follow the curve up into the horns. The sheet is thin and flexible, as repoussé work is, and shows the soft creasing that thin sheet takes.
It is the largest piece in the collection — 44 grams at 76.5 per cent gold by XRF — and it is priced by weight. It sits comfortably on the collarbone, but most people will want it on a stand or in a shallow box frame.