Lot 50. A pair of Attic gold earrings, Late Geometric period, circa 750-725 B.C.  Larger: 4.7 cm long. Price realised USD 151,200 (Estimate USD 10,000 – USD 15,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2025

Provenance: Ernst Kofler-Truniger (1903-1990) and Marthe Kofler-Truniger (1918-1999), Luzern, acquired by 1955 (Inv. no. K 719A).
Private Collection, Luzern, acquired from the above circa 1974; thence by continuous descent to the current owner.

Literature: K. Schefold, Meisterwerke griechischer Kunst, Basel and Stuttgart, 1960, pp. 308-309, no. 554.
R.A. Higgins, "The Elgin Jewellery," The British Museum Quarterly, vol. 23, no. 4, June 1961, p. 103.
R.A. Higgins, Greek and Roman Jewellery, London, 1961, p. 99.
Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, Luzern, Zurich, 1964, p. 41, no. 392, pl. 31.
R. A. Higgins, "Early Greek Jewellery," The Annual of the British School at Athens, vol. 64, 1969, pp. 143, 148-149, pl. 41c-d.
D.L. Carroll, "A Group of Asymmetrical Spiral-Form Earrings," American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 74, no. 1, 1970, p. 38, pl. 10, fig. 6.
J.N. Coldstream, Geometric Greece, New York, 1977, pp. 126, 139, n. 51.
R.A. Higgins, Greek and Roman Jewellery, second edition, London, 1980, p. 98, pl. 14d.
B. Deppert-Lippitz, Griechischer Goldschmuck, Mainz am Rhein, 1985, p. 74.
S. Langdon, ed., From Pasture to Polis: Art in the Age of Homer, Columbia, 1993, p. 71.

Exhibited: Basel, Kunsthalle, Meisterwerke griechischer Kunst, 19 June-13 September 1960.
Zurich, Kunsthaus, Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, Luzern, 7 June-2 August 1964.

Note: Only a small number of related gold earrings dating to the Geometric period are known. All are thought to have been made in Attica, and due to the similarity of the granulation style seen on several contemporary plaques and earrings found at Eleusis, the production center has been assigned to an “Eleusis school” (see Higgins, op. cit., 1969, p. 148). This pair is each composed of a stout rod, octagonal in section, coiled into a spiral and joined at one end to a large disk and at the other in a biconical element with a rectangular extension. The disk was once centered by an inlay, perhaps of either rock crystal, glass or amber, and the inlay collar is encircled by bands of granulation. Framing the inlay is a broad band of double arcades in granulation, with further bands of granulation at the rim. The reverse has a web pattern at the join of the rod, while each end of the rod has granulated triangles and bands. The biconical element has two opposing triangular cloisons, once inlaid, on the obverse, framed by a granulated meander pattern, with other granulated geometric ornament on the reverse. Both sides of the rectangular extension were also once inlaid.

Lot 51. A Greek gold strap necklace, Hellenistic period, circa late 4th century B.C. ; 24.1 cm long. Price realised USD 63,000 (Estimate USD 20,000 – USD 30,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2025

Provenance: Ernst Kofler-Truniger (1903-1990) and Marthe Kofler-Truniger (1918-1999), Luzern, acquired by 1960 (Inv. no. K 728 X).
Private Collection, Luzern, acquired from the above circa 1974; thence by continuous descent to the current owner.

Literature: K. Schefold, Meisterwerke griechischer Kunst, Basel and Stuttgart, 1960, pp. 310-312, no. 573.
Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, Luzern, Zurich, 1964, p. 41, no. 393, pl. 30.
H. Hoffmann and P.F. Davidson, Greek Gold: Jewelry from the Age of Alexander, Boston, 1965, pp. 115-116, no. 35.

Exhibited: Basel, Kunsthalle, Meisterwerke griechischer Kunst, 19 June-13 September 1960.
Zurich, Kunsthaus, Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, Luzern, 7 June-2 August 1964.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The Brooklyn Museum; Richmond, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Greek Gold: Jewelry from the Age of Alexander, 22 November 1965-1 May 1966.

Note: The strap necklace with beech-nut pendants along its length was one of the most popular necklace types beginning in the late 4th century B.C. Related examples have been found throughout the Greek world, including at Corinth (G.R. Davidson, Corinth: Results of Excavations conducted by The American School of Classical Studies at Athens, vol. XII, The Minor Objects, pl. 109) in Macedonia, at Kyme (Asia Minor) and on the northern coast of the Black Sea (D. Williams and J. Ogden, Greek Gold Jewellery of the Classical World, nos. 30, 53, & 106). Similar necklaces are painted on the bodies of black-glazed pottery (see for example the Attic calyx-krater, no. 118 in B. Deppert-Lippitz, Griechischer Goldschmuck). The present example has a strap of interlinked loop-in-loop chains supporting 54 beech-nut pendants, each suspended from a rosette joined to the lower edge of the strap. Each end of the hook-and-loop closure is adorned with a palmette.

Lot 53. A pair of Greek gold and enamel earrings, Magna Graecia, Hellenistic period, circa early 2nd century B.C. Each: 3.4 cm long. Price realised USD 37,800 (Estimate USD 10,000 – USD 15,000). © Christie's Images Ltd 2025

Provenance: with Dr. Jacob Hirsch (1874-1955), New York.
Ernst Kofler-Truniger (1903-1990) and Marthe Kofler-Truniger (1918-1999), Luzern, acquired from the above by 1955 (Inv. no. K 731 F).
Private Collection, Luzern, acquired from the above circa 1974; thence by continuous descent to the current owner.

Literature: K. Schefold, Meisterwerke griechischer Kunst, Basel and Stuttgart, 1960, p. 314, 317, no. 591.
Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, Luzern, Zurich, 1964, p. 43, no. 408, pl. 31.

Exhibited: Basel, Kunsthalle, Meisterwerke griechischer Kunst, 19 June-13 September 1960.
Zurich, Kunsthaus, Sammlung E. und M. Kofler-Truniger, Luzern, 7 June-2 August 1964.

Note: Each earring is composed of a disk centered by a sheet rosette with a granule at the center, encircled by petals rimmed with filigree and framed by rings of granulation and filigree. Above are spiraling tendrils and a blossom of filigree and granulation, forming a stylized Isis crown, with a hooked ear wire on the reverse. Suspended from the disks is a pendant in the form of an eagle holding Zeus’ thunderbolt within its talons (only one preserved). The eagle’s body is ornamented with dense granulation, the spread wings with filigree and granulation. The eagle is flanked by double tassels of globular plain beads interspersed with granulated rings, with granulated clusters at the tips and a sheet disk at the top. To the eagle’s left is a smaller bird adorned with green and white enamel.

This pair belongs to a group of Hellenistic earrings with bird pendants ornamented with dense granulation, all from South Italy and Sicily. For an example in the Museo Archeologico Regionale Paolo Orsi in Syracuse, see pl. XXVII in B. Deppert-Lippitz, Griechischer Goldschmuck, and for two pairs from the Rosenberg Collection, see M. Rosenberg, Geschichte der Goldschmiedekunst auf Technischer Grundlage, Abteilung: Granulation, figs. 26 & 27. For related South Italian earrings surmounted by the Isis crown, see E.M. De Juliis, Gli Ori di Taranto in Età Ellenistica, nos. 79, 80, 82 and 83.

Christie's. Antiquities, New York, 4 February 2025