Intaglio with Head of Medusa Set in a Ring

This intaglio depicts the head of Medusa in three-quarter perspective. She has snakes and wings in her hair and additional snakes at her neck. On the lower left is a winged caduceus.

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

John Stanhope, London, by 1748 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Philip Dormer Stanhope, fourth Earl of Chesterfield, Chesterfield House, London, by 1748, by bequest; William Ponsonby, second Earl of Bessborough, Parkstead House, Roehampton, by 1761, by purchase [Bessborough no. C18]; George Spencer, fourth Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, by ca. 1765, by purchase [Marlborough no. 96]; George Spencer-Churchill, fifth Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, 1817, by bequest; George Spencer-Churchill, sixth Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, 1840, by bequest; John Spencer-Churchill, seventh Duke of Marlborough, Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire, 1857, by bequest; Sale, The Marlborough Gems, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 28 June 1875, p. 14, lot 96; David Bromilow, Bitteswell Hall, Leicestershire, ca. 1875, by purchase; Julia Bromilow Jary, Bitteswell Hall, Leicestershire, 1898, by bequest; Sale, The Marlborough Gems Purchased by the Late David Bromilow, esq., Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 26 June 1899, p. 16, lot 96; Charles Newton-Robinson, London, 1899, by purchase; Sale, The Collection of Engraved Gems, Camei, and Intagli Formed by Charles Newton-Robinson, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 22 June 1909, p. 23, lot 80 [illust.]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1909, by purchase [Dikran Kelekian as agent]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.