VASE OR BOX SEAL

Description This annular seal, with a 'U' section, was placed on the rim of a cylindrical lacquered container (either a box or a vase) made of wood: it still retains some fiber residue inside. The seal thus also had the function to reinforce, and not only to decorate, the object in question. The decoration, made of cold-inlaid silver, covers the entire upper and outer circumference of the seal with two distinct geometric designs. Above, curling volutes perpendicular to thicker guide-lines that alternate along the outer and inner limits of the frieze. Along the outer circumference, the silver inlay divides the space into registers, each of them presenting two opposed spiral curls. This type of seal appeared around the beginning of the 3rd century BCE, but became common in the second half of the same century.