3rd-1st century BC. A necklace composed of gold and lapis lazuli spool-shaped beads, all with gold loops and links; each terminal formed as a stylised beast head amphora comprising a garnet bead with sheet gold foot and beast-head top, the animals' horns forming the vessels' handles; each beast head is executed in detail, with a cranial ridge, nose, whiskered muzzle, textured fur and wide circular eyes; one terminal holds the necklace hook in its jaws, the other its loop. Cf. Marshall, F.H., Catalogue of the Jewellery Greek, Etruscan and Roman in the Departments of Antiquities British Museum, London, 1911, for a near identical specimen, cat. no.1974, p.219, pl. XXXVI; Despini, A., Greek Art. Ancient Gold Jewellery, Athens, 1996, particularly p.142, for a comparable example of a gold necklace composed of spool-shaped beads; cf. Higgins, R.C., Greek and Roman Jewellery, London, 1961, plates 51 and 53, for very similar Hellenistic examples of such terminals dating between the 4th-1st centuries BC. 13.92 grams, 43.5cm (17 1/4"). Property of a London gentleman; formerly in the private collection of an English lady previously living in Oxford; acquired on the UK art market from the mid 1980s; accompanied an independent specialist report and valuation by graduate gemmologist and jewellery expert Anna Rogers, GIA GG, BA, Gem-A, ref. no.164809/7/10/2020; this lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no.10130-164809. This kind of necklace begins to be used between the 4th and the 3rd century BC; specimens are known from Crete and the Greek Pontus. With the conquests of Alexander, the precious stones of the East, especially the Syrian garnet, come to be more freely used. This jewel is one of the many examples of the use of precious stones in Greek jewellery of late fourth and third centuries.