Lot 119. Three Celtic gold finger rings, circa late 4th century B.C. Estimate USD 60,000 - USD 90,000. Photo Christie's Images Ltd 2016.

Largest: .15/16 in. (2.3 cm.) wide

Provenance: Johan Gilch (d. 1943); thence by descent to his son Alfred Gilch (1918-2013) and his wife, Elizabeth Gilch (b. 1926), Munich; thence by descent.

Note: These richly ornamented rings were thought to have been found together and threaded onto a plain gold hoop. One has openwork scrolls emerging from ram heads on each shoulder, each ram with three ridged leaves descending from its mouth; while the other two each have mustached heads arranged tête-bêches amidst complex scrolling with palmettes below their chins, they are very different in terms of the form of the heads and the arrangement of the pattern work. For a related gold ring see pl. 216 in R. Megaw and V. Megaw, Celtic Art, From its Beginnings to the Book of Kells.

Christie's. Sale 12257. Antiquities, 25 October 2016, New York, Rockefeller Plaza