A gold ring with hexagonal bezel of a flowerpot, lotus and tree-of-plenty Central Java, Indonesia, 9th - early 10th century | 九至十世紀初 印尼中爪哇 生命之樹紋金戒指

Property from the Tuyet Nguyet and Stephen Markbreiter Collection

A gold ring with hexagonal bezel of a flowerpot, lotus and tree-of-plenty

Central Java, Indonesia, 9th - early 10th century

雪月藏亞洲藝術珍品

九至十世紀初 印尼中爪哇 生命之樹紋金戒指

The chased motif on the stepped bezel symbolizes the Sanskrit character Sri, which is associated with Dewi Sri, the Goddess of rice and fertility. The Sri motif can be depicted as an inscription, or in an abstract pictorial form as seen on the current lot. Rings with the Sri motif were regarded as amulets, bestowing wealth and prosperity upon the wearer.

See a similar ring from the Samuel Eilenberg-Jonathan P. Rosen Collection of Indonesian Gold, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (accession no.: 1998.544.379): www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/50275.

For a Sri inscription example, see a Javanese gold seal ring From Rabuk, Purbalingga offered in this sale, lot 1007.

d. 1.8 cm; 38.6 grams