Mercury’s cockerel

A Roman amethyst intaglio circa 3rd century AD set to a modern handcrafted 18 carat gold channel set ring. The intaglio depicts a cockerel, the totemic bird of Mercury, with palm frond. Mercury was the divine messenger and the connection between different levels of existence, as they were understood at the time: divine, mortal, and afterlife. No one was more suited to this role, he was born at dawn, between night and day; he was a thief and a gambler, but also a merchant and a gifted musician – excess and moderation in a single god. The cockerel was one of his totemic animals as it was fierce and intelligent and, above all, it too knew the borderlines, as it announced the rising sun with its voice, obliterating darkness. The ring is size N [US 6 and 1/2] and the intaglio measures 1/2 an inch by 1/3 of an inch.

£1900