X389: Ring with intaglio of Hercules and Iole

The 1887 Museum Catalogue lists this ring, together with 26 others, under the title Poniatowski Intaglie, Mounted in Gold as Rings. The Poniatowski collection was a celebrated collection of around 2,500 gems formed by Prince Stanislas Poniatowski (1754-1833). The gems were commissioned by the Prince from contemporary, mainly Roman engravers. However, he encouraged the belief that the gems were genuinely ancient. Most were original creations of superb quality that were derived from ancient literary sources such as the works of Homer, Virgil and Ovid. This intaglio, however, is an exact copy of an ancient amethyst intaglio signed by Teucer. Even the original signature is reproduced. That gem is now in the Museo Archeologico, Florence but during the early seventeenth century was in the collection of Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc of Aix-en-Provence.

The Poniatowski collection was sold in a series of sales held at Christie's in 1839 (29 April – 21 May). The gems were subsequently recognised as modern and unjustly spurned and sold cheaply.

However, X389 cannot have come from the Poniatowski gem as the signature is too imprecise and amateurish. An intaglio after the same model was in the Poniatowski collection and impressions of that gem survive.