Spier, Gems, 953.

British Museum, M&LA G555; said to be from Ephesos; formerly in the collection of S. Wood (by 1872). Red jasper of irregular shape (top very slightly convex, the back more so), c. 19 x 15 x 3. Side A: Menorah. Side B: four lines of Hebrew, ohftk qtrptk qha[?]tk qf[?]czhtk; perhaps, written backwards with some blundered letters, “Michael, Raphael, Israel, Gabriel”.

Published: King, Antique Gems, vol. 2, 83–84, fig. at 37 (“brought from Ephesus”); idem, Handbook, 208, pl. 14, 7; Goodenough, Jewish Symbols, vol. 2, 221, fig. 1032, “maybe a forgery”; Bonner, SMA, 29; Smith, “Old Testament Motifs”, 191, fig. 5 (who doubted the authenticity, “likely Renaissance or a later imitation”; the inscription is seen as “an imitation of the ten commandments”); BMC Magical Gems, no. 473 (“Antik/Neuzeitlich?”). In view of its alleged findsite and the date of its appearance in the Wood collection, the gem is likely to be the example from Ephesos mentioned by the Rev. Henry J. van Lennep, who was a missionary in Turkey, in Travel in Little-known Parts of Asia Minor, vol. 1 (London, 1870), 20, footnote: “...many stones having the same characters [i.e. magical], all coming from regions south of Smyrna...the most remarkable...bore a fine representation of a sevenbranch candlestick...”.