Bücher von John Boardman

This new series is in the same format as Studies in the History of Collections and Studies in Classical Archaeology. It is intended for studies in gems and jewellery from ancient to neo-classical, both monographs and the publication of contents of collections, and is inspired by the Beazley Archive's rich resources of gem impressions and casts, gathered first by Sir John Beazley himself. This second volume, Classical Phoenician Scarabs A catalogue and study, is the result of some years of collecting records of the green jasper scarabs of the Mediterranean world in the course of research on other glyptic, Greek and Persian. The principal aim is to present the material in catalogue form, arranged by subject, and accompanied by selective illustration. (The first volume (2003), Classical and Eastern Intaglios, Rings and Cameos, by C. Wagner and J. Boardman, publishes a selection of gems from a private collection formed between 1921 and about 1970. They range from 3rd-millennium BC cylinder seals of Mesopotamia, to Neo-classical engravings of the 19th century AD, and include prime specimens also of Greek, Etruscan, Roman and Sasanian glyptic.

This volume presents a selection from a large private collection of engraved gems, finger rings and cylinder seals. It was created from 1921 through the 1960s from various sources, and includes many examples from old collections that had come on to the market, notably the Evans, Southesk, and (for later gems) Poniatowski, as well as many purchased from dealers and in auctions. They are now in the possession of the collector's son, who encouraged this publication. Boardman had already published a selection, mainly of the Greek and Etruscan gems from the collection, in Intaglios and Rings (London, Thames and Hudson, 1975), and these stones have since been purchased by the J. Paul Getty Museum in Malibu (except for nos. 9, 17, 86, 149, 154, 205-208). The present selection also includes some early gems, omitted from the earlier publication for various reasons, but it is mainly devoted to the Hellenistic and Roman, as well as to a choice of the many Sasanian stones, cylinder seals, other eastern, and Neo-classical. The selection has been determined by the apparent interest of each piece for either its style or its subject, but also represents a fairly typical range of gem engraving through the Greek and Roman worlds, and outside it - including Etruscan, Greco-Persian, Syrian, Persian, Phoenician, Sasanian and the early production of cylinders in the near east. This is the type of material that was available for collectors in the first half of the last century. The catalogue takes the form of a descriptive handlist rather than a catalogue raisonné, with select comparanda, and with more attention paid to the puzzling or important pieces. Of these there are several of the highest quality, and several of exceptional archaeological or iconographic interest. The prime motive has been to make much of the collection known to scholars who might wish to take study of individual pieces further. To this end the publication of mainly unprovenanced engraved gems is of no less importance than that of unprovenanced decorated vases. This volume inaugurates the new series Studies in Gems and Jewellery.

'The 'Ordos bronzes' are well known to collectors and many museums, named for the many finds in and around the Ordos plateau in north China. They are ...the subject of many catalogues and parts of catalogues of collections [and] have much to tell of contacts and of iconographic inspiration passing, in both directions, from China and from the Steppes... I am dealing with what are generally regarded as belt plaques, not the many animal-only 'Ordos bronzes' of various forms and attachments, which may have been applied to harness or dress or furniture, and which are equally numerous; nor with daggers and the like. The main series considered here (the 'Rope-border' plaques) ...begins with works of art of amazing intricacy of composition, combining a certain horror vacui with a desire to indicate all parts of the animal figures involved... The series takes us from over a century before the Qin dynasty 'unification' of China, well into early Han times, roughly from the fourth/third to first centuries BC. Coeval with them, especially in the later period, are other plaque series of different shapes and many of them far less ambitious. These represent more decidedly 'nomad art', even when their forms and iconography are employed for luxury items of some intricacy, of the type that reached Siberia, and which characterize Peter the Great's Treasure which had been assembled there, and whether or not some were made by the Chinese for their nomad rivals...Over the whole period studied the interfaces with the arts of Scythians and Sarmatians are apparent, and noted where important, but the subject is only part of the far wider phenomenon of Eurasian arts, a daunting subject. And like all 'art-historical' studies it carries a historical element involving the nature of relations between nomad and settled (to put it at its simplest), as well as the behaviour of owners/wearers. Many 'nomads' of the areas we visit were virtually 'settled', while among the 'settled' Chinese many lived a transhumance 'nomad' existence. I address this as best I can in the Conclusions, realizing that for many this should be the main reason for such a study. It is likely, however, in the face of the very plentiful material, that a mainly art-historical approach may lead more readily to conclusions of social and historical significance.' (From the author's Preface)

The Beazley Archive Studies in Gems and Jewellery IVThis volume is intended to supply some supplementary information about the gems and cameos published in A Collection of Classical and Eastern Intaglios, Rings and Cameos, published in 2003 as BAR S1136. These had been chosen from a large private collection formed mainly in Italy from about 1921 into the 1960s. It comprised ancient gems but there were a number of post-antique, and part of this publication is devoted to further consideration of some of them, as well as of some comparable examples in the collection not included before, and especially to their later, most distinctive mounts, a feature not always much remarked or explored in publications of ancient gems in later settings. Those on gems in this collection are mainly remarkable for demonstrating some characteristically elaborate Sicilian methods of mounting gems, mainly of the 18th century, and not commonly encountered in published collections. The opportunity is also taken to add a few more interesting examples from the collection, and to republish in colour some of the more important pieces in the original catalogue. The opportunity is, moreover, also taken reflect briefly upon the way in which the ancient traditions in gem engraving and the classical style and subject matter survived or was revived and rediscovered in later centuries. The accompanying text attempts also to summarise some of the problems of original and copy, not only à propos of gems. The study of such matters is extremely complex, requiring a breadth of knowledge about both antiquity and the artistic and literary activities of both the Renaissance and the Neo-Classical movements of the 17th to 19th centuries. A further essay explores the ways by which the subjects of the gems became known beyond the world of those who owned or could readily view the originals, since the publication of gems, by drawing or facsimile, plays a major role in the whole story. This offers the opportunity to illustrate pages from antiquarian books to demonstrate the style and quality of reproduction available and practised before photography.