Auction Highlights
-
Egyptian Granite Head of a Dignitary
Sold for (Inc. bp): £28,600
Carved with soft facial features and carefully executed cosmetic lines around the eye, earring, and carefully detailed duplex wig with gently wavy curls; likely from the Ramesside Period; mounted on a custom-made stand. -
Etruscan Bronze Statuette of Herakles
Sold for (Inc. bp): £18,200
Modelled in the round with a muscular nude body, his club resting on his shoulder and the hair dressed in rows of tight, close-set curls underneath the Nemean lionskin hood with cloak billowing over his left arm, the paws tied across his chest; mounted on a custom-made display stand. -
Roman Marble Portrait of a Boy as Worshipper of Isis
Sold for (Inc. bp): £17,550
Carved head of a prepubescent worshipper of Isis, with soft facial features, long nose, small downturned mouth, heavy-lidded eyes, the whole giving the face a sombre or mournful appearance; the hair textured to indicate a short cut and combed forward across the scalp, sidelock above the right ear; mounted on a 16th century carved breccia upper body with leather cuirass and pteruges to right shoulder, cloak draped across the shoulders and fastened at the clavicle on the right side with a disc-brooch; socle base; some restoration. -
Larger Than Life-Size Roman Bronze Sandaled Foot
Sold for (Inc. bp): £39,000
Modelled in the round and originally part of a monumental statue, the naturalistic right foot encased in a trochades leather sandal with median reversed tongue secured with side straps and thick looped laces; the thick platform sole slightly curved, toes and nails well defined; mounted on a substantial custom-made display stand. -
Life-Size Roman Marble Sleeping Girl from a Sarcophagus Lid
Sold for (Inc. bp): £20,800
Modelled in the half-round, nude with eyelids half-closed in sleep; a drapery partly covering the head and wrapping around the lower body under the hips; the hairstyle similar to those of the Antonine Dynasty, the peaceful face supported by the hands and the ear pierced to accept an earring; iron reinforcing rod to the feet and the right arm's armilla a later replacement; upper head restored in Parian marble. -
Byzantine Porphyry Relief with Cross Surrounded by Two Birds
Sold for (Inc. bp): £28,600
An imposing panel divided to four sections by a central cross on a stepped pedestal, the lower and upper arm with branch-like extensions; the upper quadrants with a circlet surrounding a palm tree-shaped motif; each lower quadrant with a bird in profile facing back; mounted on a custom-made display stand. -
Carved Marble Memento Mori Skull
Sold for (Inc. bp): £16,900
Carved skull on a short neck with musculature and blood vessels; mandible in place with some teeth in sockets, wisps of hair adhering to the dome of the skull; one zygomatic bone partly absent; square-section socle base. -
'The Kelton' Gandharan Head of a Bodhisattva
Sold for (Inc. bp): £24,700
Carved in the half-round head of a Bodhisattva (probably Maitreya) with fine detailing to the arched brow, aquiline nose, neat moustache and full lips; the eyes heavily lidded, urna to the forehead, long open lobes to the ears; the hair in multi-stranded curling locks gathered into an ushnisha with brow-band below; heavily cleaned, conserved, and mounted on a custom-made stand; supplied with original old wooden base with collector's label: 'Head of Bodhisattva / Fine grain schist / Gandhara, Northwest Pakistan / 4th century'.
-
Roman Glass Toilet Bottle
1st century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £195
With globular body, short everted rim and cylindrical neck, concave base. 73 grams, 10 cm
Ex London, UK, collection, 1980-1990s.
The bottle should be associated with Isings form 6 or Tommaso type 7. Small bottles of this typology are among the earliest known blown glass. The everted rim seems to distinguish examples made in Italy and the western Mediterranean provinces from those of the Eastern Mediterranean, on which the rim is usually folded in the form of a flange. -
Roman Bronze Decorated Bracelet
1st-3rd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £117
Composed of a D-section hoop, flattened terminals with rounded ends decorated with horizontal rows of shallow dots and quatrefoils between parallel tracks. 17 grams, 53 mm wide
German art market, 1990s. Mr A.H., a North American collector living in the UK. -
Roman Gold Cupid Pendant
1st-4th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £338
Hollow-formed with loop above the head, the right hand raised to the head and the lowered left hand holding a rosette. 2.78 grams, 24 mm
From the collection of a Cambridge, UK, lady. -
Roman 'Lancashire' Jet Dice Gaming Piece
1st-4th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £286
Cuboid with incised ring-and-dot markings disposed 1:6, 2:4, 3:5; old collector's label '12' to one face and record card; abraded through usage. 3.24 grams, 13 mm
Found Lancashire, UK. From the important private collection of dice and gaming pieces of Colin Narbeth, London, UK, collection no.12. Accompanied by a Colin Narbeth catalogue identification card. -
Roman Bronze Ring with Venus
1st-2nd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £442
Ellipsoid bezel with intaglio image of Venus standing nude holding a mirror in one hand and dressing her hair with the other. 2.70 grams, 21.15 mm overall, 18.48 mm internal diameter (approximate size British O 1/2, USA 7 1/4, Europe 15.61, Japan 15)
Ex German art market, 2000s. Acquired from an EU collector living in London. From the collection of Surrey, UK, gentleman. -
Roman Sheet-Gold Phalera Cover with Imperial Bust
4th-6th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £338
Discoid ornamental appliqué with raised border enclosing an imperial bust in profile, shown bearded and wearing a diadem and a military cloak. 4.78 grams, 64 mm
Acquired in the early 1990s. From the collection of a London antiquarian. Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
The subject is represented as an Imperator or a field general, recalling the image of a victorious emperor. Such iconography was widely in use in the late Roman Empire, and even adopted on the coins of Gothic rulers of Ostrogothic Italy. -
Roman Bronze Military 'Yonic' Horse Cheek Piece
1st-4th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £130
Comprising a substantial ring with incised borders surrounding three radiating hexagonal plates supporting a central pierced triangular panel; each with a raised dome and longitudinal recess; rectangular suspension slot above. 85 grams, 83 mm
From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000. From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent. -
Roman Decorated Glass Necklace Bead Group
Circa 1st-4th century A.D. and laterSold for (Inc. bp): £130
Composed of hot-worked opaque black glass beads of various types, including examples displaying white and polychrome motifs, some showing 'folded' technique, or decorated with swirls and applied trails. 43 grams total, 6-15 mm
UK gallery, early 2000s. -
Roman Bronze Phallic Knife Handle
2nd-3rd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £72
Formed as an elongated phallus, the quillon formed as the testes. 55.9 grams, 90 mm
From an old UK collection, 1980s. -
Roman Bronze Brooch Collection
2nd-3rd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £234
Including penannular, La Tène III and other types; all complete with pins. 28 grams total, 38-56 mm
Property of the vendor's grandfather, thence by family descent, circa 1985. From the private collection of a New York, USA gentleman. -
Byzantine 'Greek Fire' Ceramic Fire Bomb or Hand Grenade
9th-11th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £221
Piriform body with domed filler-hole, four lugs to the shoulder, body decorated with four vertical bands of lozenges flanked by annulets, a horizonal band of tightly arranged lozenges above the shoulder; intended to be filled with explosive liquid and wick, used as a hand grenade. 486 grams, 13.8 cm
From a specialist collection of militaria, London, UK, collected 1990s onwards. Accompanied by an academic paper by military specialist Dr Raffaele D'Amato, dated 15 July 2019 and titled 'Eastern Roman Empire - Greek Fire Bomb or Hand Grenade (μεσαίον kακάβιον) 9th-11th century AD'.
Apart from the use of siphons or manual flame-throwers called cheirosiphona, special corps of Roman soldiers employed terracotta grenades, in the form of small jars, abundantly evidenced in archaeological excavations. They were called μεσαία kακαβιά or κυτροκακάβια where the former had a bulbous shape and the latter a more cylindrical form. -
Byzantine Gold Filigree Pendant
12th-14th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £208
Capsule-shaped with openwork filigree ornament to the equator, a single granule to each terminal and a coiled wire suspension loop to apex. 0.82 grams, 15 mm
From a late Japanese specialist collector, 1970-2000s.