This intaglio is set in an 18 karat gold rin
The art of glyptics, or carving on colored precious stones, is probably one of the oldest known to humanity. Intaglios, gems with an incised design, were made as early as the fourth and third millennia BC in Mesopotamia and Aegean Islands. They display a virtuosity of execution that suggests an old and stable tradition rooted in the earliest centuries. The tools required for carving gems were simple: a wheel with a belt-drive and a set of drills. Abrasives were necessary since the minerals used were too hard for a metal edge. A special difficulty of engraving intaglios, aside from their miniature size, was that the master had to work with a mirror-image in mind.
Tyche (the deified personification of Chance or Fortune) was one of the most popular deities in the ancient world. Unlike other goddesses she possessed no myth, being regarded more as a concept. Particularly popular in Imperial Rome, she became an emblem of the providence and chance to which the world is subjected. Every city had their own Tyche, represented as a beautiful women crowned with towers to symbolize her role as guardian. This very fine intaglio shows the benevolent goddess facing right, wearing her distinctive turreted crown. She is majestic and powerful, but also approachable, since fortune is a right by which we all may be blessed.