Intaglio

This jasper intaglio is of Mercury facing left. He is nude apart from a drape over his left forearm. In his right hand he holds a caduceus and in his left a money bag. The style is characteristic of intaglios cut at the end of of the 2nd century or early 3rd century AD. Mercury was a messenger to the gods, and also the patron god of financial gain, commerce, eloquence, communication, travellers, boundaries, luck, trickery and thieves. He also guides sould to the underworld.