Classical Gems

This is a comprehensive, lavishly illustrated catalogue of the magnificent collection of over a thousand engraved gems in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. It also provides a history of engraved gems from c. 1000 BC to the nineteenth century AD. Gems cut in intaglio were used mainly as signets for sealing documents, and were valued from remote antiquity for their artistry. The Fitzwilliam Museum contains work by the greatest of the Classical Greek engravers, Dexamenos, and by the master signet-cutter of the Augustan age, Dioskourides, who provided Augustus's own seal. The collection as a whole is very wide ranging, with a large holding of Sassanian gems and others from north-west India.