The Digital Ark: Early Modern Collections of Curiosities in England and Scotland, 1580-1700
Circular Sard [ARK00170]
Attached People: Collector (major) - Bargrave, John (1610-1680)Location(s): Current location at - Canterbury Cathedral Library and Archives (Library and/or Archive) -> Canterbury Cathedral (Institution)
Annotation:[Canterbury Catalog: a) Dark Sard; circular flat incised with an image of an ear of corn and 2 cornucopiae. (b) Circular Sard impression (CANCA-B/105b). Sard is a reddish-brown chalcedony (SiO2), much used by the ancients as a gemstone. Pliny the Elder states that it was named from Sardis, in Lydia, where it was first discovered; but the name probably was probably derived from the stone from Persia (Pers. sered, yellowish-red). Sard was used for Assyrian cylinder-seals, Egyptian and Phoenician scarabs, and early Greek and Etruscan gems. Some kinds of sard closely resemble carnelian, but are usually rather harder and tougher, with a duller and more hackly fracture. The cornucopia (Latin: Cornu Copiae) is a symbol of food and abundance dating back to the 5th cent BC, also referred to as horn of plenty, Horn of Amalthea, and harvest cone.](approx 5th cent - 1st cent BC)