File:Roman finger-ring (FindID 840382-609483).jpg

English: A Roman silver finger-ring of Henig Type II set with a cornelian gemstone engraved to depict Cupid as a huntsman, holding up a hare in his right hand for his hound below.

The finger-ring is D-shaped in profile, being flat at the bezel-edge. In cross-section the back of the hoop is pointed oval, being convex to both inner and outer surfaces. The inner surface flattens and the outer develops a prominent central ridge towards the shoulders; from here the bezel becomes much flatter. The back of the hoop measures 2.9x2.3mm, expanding to 6.9x3.3mm at the shoulders. The bezel is max.8.8mm wide and 3.5mm thick.
The cornelian is oval in shape, measuring 10.0x7.5mm, and a dark orangey-red in colour. It is cut to sit flush with the top of the bezel. It depicts Cupid standing left with pronounced rounded hips, feet together, his left arm diagonally out to the side with the hand bent upwards at the wrist. The right arm is held horizontally, the hand holding a hare or rabbit vertically by its back legs. Below, the dog is angled left with its back legs at Cupid's feet and its front paws apart, the upper appearing to reach for the hare just above it. Cupid's wings extend behind him in a downward curve from just below the neck. He has head-gear with two short diagonal projections to the front of the head.
The metal is dark grey in colour, the surface lightly pitted and rough to touch. The finger-ring measures 24.3mm wide and 19.5mm tall (internal 17.8x13.9mm); it weighs 6.31g.

Martin Henig comments "I can tell from the photo that the material is cornelian and the ring is of my Type II, a type which goes back to the 1st century but these quite stocky silver rings are characteristic of the mid 2nd century, compare the signet rings in Catherine Johns, The Snettisham Roman Jeweller's Hoard (British Museum 1997) nos 222-242.
... it is Cupid depicted as a huntsman, holding up a hare to his hound. It would be customary to reward the hound with the animal's internal organs. For the subject see A. Furtwaengler, Konigliche Museen zu Berlin. Beschreibung der Geschnittenen Steine im Antiquarium (Berlin 1896) p.279 and pl.56 no.7544, also a cornelian but M. Maaskant-Kleibrink, Catalogue of the Engraved Gems in the Royal Coin Cabinet The Hague. The Greek, Etruscan and Roman Collections (The Hague 1978)p. 182-3 and pl.76 no 383 and p.286 no.807, pl.135 are closer, the former also cornelian but the latter is a green chrome chalcedony. Gems quite often show cupid as huntsman, often loosing hounds, as Maaskant-Kleibrink p.183 nos 384 and 385. Although not of the Snettisham workshop I would give it the same date, c mid 2nd century.
In general Cupids and satyrs hunters , (see M.Henig, A Corpus of Roman Engraved Gemstones from British Sites (BAR 8, 1974,1978 and 2007 edns) nos 158,159,166,170,179 for satyrs), imitate the actions of real huntsmen (Henig nos 181 and 184 even if the last may be taken to represent the hunter god Silvanus Cocidius). There are also gems showing goatherd dogs leaping up at a viscerated hare handing from a tree, Henig nos 498,499.

Ultimately this gem is a reflection of rural life, in Britain as elsewhere in the European provinces of the Empire" pers. comm. April 2017.