Roman Carnelian Intaglio - Dextrarum Iunctio w/ Wheat

Roman, Imperial period. A miniature carnelian ringstone of glowing orange-red, its domed oval face carved in intaglio with a dextrarum iunctio: two right hands clasped in the Roman gesture of pledged faith, surmounted by a pair of grain ears. The engraving is rendered in the abstracted, linear manner of late antique glyptic, where the cutting wheel reduces fingers and stalks to crisp strokes rather than modeled anatomy. Such stones were set into finger rings and pressed into wax to seal documents, the device serving as both signature and sentiment. The joined hands declare fidelity, likely marital or contractual, while the wheat above evokes fertility and abundance, a pairing appropriate to a betrothal or wedding gift. Highly polished on the reverse, the gem retains the warm translucency prized by Roman jewelers. The dextrarum iunctio, the joining of right hands, was among the most enduring images in Roman visual culture, appearing on coins, sarcophagi, funerary reliefs, and gemstones alike. The right hand was sacred to Fides, the personified deity of good faith, and its clasping constituted a solemn, binding gesture: the ratification of a treaty, the sealing of a contract, the swearing of allegiance, and above all the concordia of husband and wife. Initiates of certain mystery cults, notably the Mithraic, were known as syndexioi, "those joined by the right hand," a term that preserves the same gesture in a religious register. Grain ears flanking or crowning the hands widen the meaning toward prosperity and increase, attributes of Ceres and of the annona. On a personal seal the combination reads as a compact wish: may this bond hold, and may it bear fruit. Item # 204682

Estimate:$225

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