Byzantine Bronze Figural Intaglio Gemstone

A mixed group of silver-gilt liturgical items comprising: a hanging lamp with flared foot, carinated segmented body, flared neck with band of repoussé quatrefoils and florets, rolled rim, three suspension chains with loops and hook; a hollow piriform finial, possibly from a throne or a standard finial, with ropework collar and vertical tendril bands with pellets alternating with plain segments; a two-part vestment clasp set, each half formed as a parcel-gilt scallop shell with flared rim and pierced trapezoidal plaque, hook-and-eye hinge. 201 grams total, 90-110mm

Very fine condition.

Property of a Surrey gentleman; formerly from the private collection of a Canadian gentleman; from his father's collection formed 1965-1990; accompanied by an archaeological report by Dr. Raffaele D’Amato, Art Loss Register certificate numbers S001261511, S001261512 & S001261513, dated 5 September 2017 and a copy of a photograph taken prior to professional cleaning; this lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no. 10373-167792.

Hanging lamps, of different dimensions, were used to create the spiritual atmosphere surrounding the Divine Liturgy. Light was important not only from a practical point of view but also symbolically. The parcel gilt flask, if not the finial of a throne, episcopal chair or church labarum (standard), could be a miniature version of a large ceramic oil or wine container with a pointed base for setting them in sand at the cargo hold of a ship, and was probably used as a small flask for myrrh, the liturgical oil. The ornamented wreath border between shoulder and neck of the finial is a typical Byzantine decoration in the workshops active in the Imperial capital of Constantinople, as attested on a vase in the same ornament and style preserved in the Louvre collections (RGZM, 2010, p.173).

With incised legend '+OKA / TOIKO / NENBO / HΘIA' (for 'O KATOIKΩN EN BOHΩEIA' "Whoever dwells in the shelter (of the most high)' from Psalm 90. 1.3 grams, 17 mm



From an important collection formed before 1988, London and Geneva.

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. 16 kg total, 44.5 cm including stand



Private collection, London, UK. Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12179-221676.

The cross, symbol of resurrection and salvation, carried the meaning of Paradise, and a cross on a stepped base derived from that on Golgotha. The birds represented here are probably a symbol of joy of the afterlife, of paradise conceived as the locus refrigerii or refrigerium of the soul. The panel could have been part of a marble iconostasis of a Church of the Eastern Roman Empire, in Southern Italy, although the use of porphyry can suggest a Constantinopolitan provenance.