The Curdworth ring is a man's heavy solid gold finger ring set with an oval, dark-green intaglio showing Venus Victrix standing, draped and armed.
Venus is shown with her back to the viewer, her drapery falling around her waist, her right elbow resting on a column, gazing at a crested helmet in her outstretched left hand, with a shield upright at her feet and a spear behind her. The ring is likely to have belonged to someone of Equestrian rank, the upper middle class of the Roman world. It is also interesting due to the green colour of the intaglio as the majority are red, often being made of carnelian. In the Roman mind green was associated with vegetation and growth, and in this context the depiction of Venus is appropriate since she was originally a goddess of gardens.
Provenance
Found in the 1930s on a farm at Curdworth, near Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire. Passed by descent on to vendor.