An Egyptian Gold Snake Armlet, Roman Period, circa 1st century B.C.-1st century A.D.

Maurice Tempelsman, New York, acquired in or prior to January 1967 based on a dated photograph

then by descent

A nearly identical example was once in the Kofler-Truniger Collection in Lucerne, Switzerland, probably as early as the 1950s/1960s, and most recently on the Swiss art market (Galerie Cahn, Basel, Sales Catalogue. Tefaf Maastricht, March 2026, no. 8, pp. 58-62, illus.); that the present armlet and its twin originally formed a pair is made clear by the fact that they were constructed as each other's mirror image by switching the direction of the tail and head at each end. The same device occurs in a pair of snake bracelets in the Metropolitan Museum, each also with the tail terminating in a diminutive snake's head (https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/547711). For a comparable isolated bracelet in the Getty Museum see https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/104065.

Gold jewelry featuring snake iconography was popular in late Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt, when Egyptian iconography was reinterpreted through Hellenistic and Roman aesthetics. The serpent held profound symbolic resonance in Egyptian belief, associated with protection, regeneration, and divine authority. In a Greco-Roman context, snakes likewise conveyed chthonic energy, healing, and eternity, often associated with deities such as Asclepius, the god of medicine.

Functionally, such armlets were worn high on the upper arm, their flexible coiling structure allowing for both secure fit and visual dynamism. The larger snake head would have been worn facing in, towards the body, indicating that this armlet was meant to be worn around the left arm. Beyond adornment, these armlets likely served an apotropaic role, invoking the protective qualities of the serpent. Their placement on the body, encircling the limb, may have further reinforced symbolic notions of safeguarding and containment of vital force.