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Identification and Creation

Object Number
2012.1.4
Title
Key in Form of Finger Ring
Classification
Tools and Equipment
Work Type
key
Date
1st-2nd century CE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World
Period
Roman Imperial period
Culture
Roman
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/186526

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Copper alloy
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
1.8 x 2.1 cm (11/16 x 13/16 in.)
Technical Details

Technical Observations: The surface is metallic yellow. It is pitted as a result of removing all corrosion using an electrolytic cleaning procedure.

The key was probably cast from a directly formed wax model. The key section could have been refined with a cutting tool after casting, but the corroded condition of the surface makes this difficult to determine. The ring hoop was probably created as a strip that was bent into a circle and joined in the wax stage to one side of the key element, as indicated by a slight flaw in the piece and a thickening of the form. The decorative indentations on the latter could have been made either in the wax or in the metal.


Henry Lie and Francesca G. Bewer (submitted 2012)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Walton Brooks McDaniel, New Jersey (?-1943/46), gift; to the Department of the Classics, Harvard University, (1943/46-2012), transfer; to the Harvard Art Museums, 2012.


Note: Walton Brooks McDaniel gave a portion of his collection to the Department of the Classics in 1943 and the rest in 1946. The Collection is named for his late wife, Alice Corinne McDaniel.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Transfer from the Alice Corinne McDaniel Collection, Department of the Classics, Harvard University
Accession Year
2012
Object Number
2012.1.4
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
The hoop of this ring is very thin; it is flattened and somewhat more prominent in the area where the key is attached. The key portion rises from a narrow tang, expanding into a flat square with a central cutout in a U-shape.

Small finger-ring keys of this sort worked on rotary locks for boxes; wearing the key as a ring made the key more secure (1).

NOTES:

1. See C. Johns, The Jewellery of Roman Britain: Celtic and Classical Traditions (London, 1996) 55-56. Compare M. Kohlert-Németh, Archäologische Reihe Römische Bronzen aus Nida-Heddernheim 2: Fundsachen aus dem Hausrat (Frankfurt, 1990) 28, no. 7.


Lisa M. Anderson

Publication History

  • John Crawford, Sidney Goldstein, George M. A. Hanfmann, John Kroll, Judith Lerner, Miranda Marvin, Charlotte Moore, and Duane Roller, Objects of Ancient Daily Life. A Catalogue of the Alice Corinne McDaniel Collection Belonging to the Department of the Classics, Harvard University, ed. Jane Waldbaum, Department of the Classics (unpublished manuscript, 1970), M40, p. 167 [J. S. Crawford]

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes
  • Roman Domestic Art

Related Objects

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu