Bidspirit auction | AN EROTIC GARNET INTAGLIO, 17TH-18TH

AN EROTIC GARNET INTAGLIO, 17TH-18TH CENTURY AD - A large garnet intaglio showing a couple in sexual congress, the scene has almost certainly been copied from a famous bronze spintria issued under Augustus or Tiberius showing a couple in a similar position on a bed. Here the couple are shown on a Nile boat with an oil lamp suspended from the prow. Below the boat among the waves are various sea creatures. Such intaglios would have been sold to visitors to Italy from the north of Europe before the period of the Napoleonic wars. Diameter: 18 mm. PROVENANCE Acquired in London antique hypermarket before 2000s