A finely carved ancient Roman gemstone intaglio depicting the portrait of a woman. The figure is turned to the right, draped, with her hair tied up in an elaborate updo. The reverse is highly polished and undecorated. The jasper presents with a beautiful solid red-orange colour with some black striations. 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: L 1.6cm x W 1.2cm Provenance: From a gentleman's London collection, formed in the 1990s.