Centering a carved coral cameo measuring approx. 30 x 21mm, depicting a Bacchante, with beaded gold border, fashioned in 18k yellow gold. Circa 1880.

Bacchantes, known as Maenads in Greek mythology, were the female followers of Bacchus (or the Roman Dionysus), the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness, fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy. They are usually represented as worked into a state of ecstatic frenzy through a combination of dancing and intoxication. The grapes & grape leaves in their hair reference wine and the god of wine.