Gold, 3.37/3.38 grams, 46.86/43.76 mm. 1st-3rd century AD. An unusual pair of later Roman earrings modelled in sheet gold and wire. The loop consists of an extremely fine gold wire (about 1mm thick) with twisted hook-and-eye closure. A decorative plate comprising three adjacent hemispherical bosses with single-granule tips and interstitial pellets, made hollow from impressed sheet and the backplate soldered to the wire. The pendant element represents the club of Hercules with a domed top surmounted by a loop. The shaft of the club extends to a carinated domed terminal with three hemispherical extensions mirroring the decoration on the suspension loop, with granule decoration on the domes and shaft, made hollow from gold sheet. The club of Hercules was a powerful talisman in pre-Christian Rome and was used for a variety of amuletic purposes. These earrings are a known artefact type, of which the present pair are of very fine workmanship. Reference: cf. Johns, C. The Jewellery of Roman Britain: Celtic and Classical Traditions, 1996, p.129 Good very fine condition. Provenance: from an old English collection. This lot is accompanied by an XRF ancient metal test certificate from Oxford X-ray Fluorescence Ltd.