ABSTRACT
IN the Cabinet des Medailles of the Bibliotheque Nationale is an object which is intriguing both for its original form and for its later treatment in accordance with an Egyptianizing fashion of the Renaissance: it consists of an ancient aquamarine cameo cut in very high relief, set in a decorated gold pedestal which makes it a miniature term 43 mm high (see fig. 1); the provenance is unknown.! The unusual form of the aquamarine, cut three-quarters in the round as a swelling ovoid body surmounted by a human head, led to its description in the nineteenth-century catalogue of the collection of gems as an Egyptian amulet 'en forme d'oeuf surmonte d'une tete? but it is, in fact, a miniature image of an Egyptian divinity with the body of a jar, as was recognized in a more recent description.3 The back of the aquamarine is flat, indicating that it was made for insertion in a setting, presumably of metal; in its present mount, which obscures its foot, it measures 17 mm. The mount, which is somewhat crudely executed, was attributed in the catalogue to the sixteenth century AD.
