Grand Tour-era ring sold at Great Western Auctions for £2800.
Only a handful of intaglios have similar iconography: they may relate the Greek legend of Tithonus, who was granted immortality by Zeus in the form of a grasshopper (a symbol of nobility).
Possibly an ancient intaglio in an early-19th century mount, it took an unexpected £2800 – some 10 times the top estimate at the auction on March 20.
