The lotus plant rises from the vase with three distinct branches. It has been postulated that the shape is reminiscent of a menorah, specifically the menorah from the temple of Jerusalem. The vase is flanked by two indistinguishable animals.
The content in the Cornell Collection of Antiquities: Gems Collection (in part the White Collection of Historical Medallions, #8420, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections) is believed to be in the public domain by virtue of the age of the underlying material, and is presented by Cornell University Library under the Guidelines for Using Text, Images, Audio, and Video from Cornell University Library Collections [http://hdl.handle.net/1813.001/CULCopyright]. This collection was digitized by Cornell University Library in 2013 from original materials, with funding from a Digital Collections in Arts and Sciences Grant to Caitlin Barrett and Verity Platt. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item. Please contact rareref@cornell.edu for more information about this collection, or to request permission to use these images.
