A finely carved ancient Roman carnelian intaglio depicting the portrait of two male warriors. Both figures are turned to the left, helmeted, and bearded. There is a transverse arrow or spearhead in the background. The reverse is highly polished and undecorated. The carnelian presents with a beautiful translucent red-orange colour with some black encrustations. This piece is supplied with a museum-quality impression. The term intaglio refers to a small image that has been engraved into a gemstone and usually set in a piece of jewellery, most commonly a ring. Such artistic form has its origin in Sumer in the 4th millennium BC, with the appearance of cylinder and stamp seals, whereby decorations and patterns were engraved into soft stones. During the Hellenistic period and the early Roman Empire, the art of intaglio reached its apogee, with there being a steady decline in craftsmanship in the late Imperial Rome, until a revival of interest with the Byzantine and during the Renaissance. Measurements: (circa) L 1.8cm x W 1.5cm Provenance: From a gentleman's London collection, formed in the 1990s.