Details

LOT 3857

Byzantine Silver-Gilt Priest's Altar Group

6TH-7TH CENTURY AD

3 1/2 - 4 1/4" (201 grams total, 90-110mm).

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.

Provenance

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.

Literature

Cf. Spier, J., Treasures of the Ferrell Collection, Wiesbaden, 2010, p.278, item 198, for the companion piece to the hanging lamp; ibid item 213 (finial) and 214 (clasps); accompanied by copies of the relevant book pages; a similar finial, with a suggested origin from Constantinople, was in the collection of the Haddad Brothers, and exhibited at the Frieze Masters Collection in 2017; see also for comparison the artistic elements RGZM, Byzanz, Pracht und Alltag, Mainz, 2010.

Footnotes

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).