RARE HEXAGONAL ROMAN PEARL Rock crystal Dim. 12.5 x 9.5 x 5 cm Roman art, 1st century BC Provenance European private collection, acquired on the English art market in the 1990s This unusual bead of magical/allegorical design has 6 sides, each engraved with a symbol: a sword (symbol of war/power); the Herculean club (symbol of strength); the rudder (symbol of luck); the caduceus (symbol of mediation and travel); the purse of denarii of the god Mercury (symbol of wealth in trade); a scorpion facing downwards taking up a crescent moon, at the top a globe (probably symbolising the astrological sign of its owner). It may be an amulet of protection and good fortune. Signs of wear on the surface. A Rare and unsual Roman Rock Crystal hexagonal bead. 1st century BCE. This unusual bead of magical and allegorical character, longitudinally pierced, displays six facets, each carved with a symbolic motif: a gladius (emblem of war and power); the club of Hercules (emblem of strength); a ship's rudder (emblem of fortune); the caduceus (emblem of mediation and journey); Mercury's purse of denarii (emblem of mercantile prosperity); and a downward-facing scorpion seizing a lunar crescent, surmounted by an orb (presumably representing the owner's astrological sign). This artifact likely functioned as a protective amulet and talisman of propitious fortune. Evidence of surface wear.