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Details
LOT 1706
Celtic to Medieval Bronze Ring Collection
1ST CENTURY B.C.-16TH CENTURY A.D.
3/4 - 1 in. (23.39 grams total, 20-25 mm).
Comprising: five rings with decorative bezels; a coiled ring with linear decoration. [6, No Reserve]
Provenance
Acquired on the UK and EU art market before 2000.
From the private collection of a Surrey, UK, gentleman.
Literature
Cf. PAS no. DUR-00F326, for a similar Celto-Roman spiral ring, dated 200 BC-200 AD.
Footnotes
The collection includes one complete copper-alloy finger ring of late Iron Age to Roman date (200 BC - AD 200). It is coiled into a spiral of two and a half turns. Both extremities terminate in a square end with rounded corners.
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Acquired on the UK art market in the 1980s. From the private collection of an Essex gentleman.
The format, workmanship and proportions of the piece recall a number of Gallic images of Iron Age date. The slanting eye sockets below a heavy brow appear, for example, on the idol from Neuvy Pailloux (Boucher, item 47), as does the collar with a centrepiece below the chin on the same item. The thick band of hair appears on a bronze figurine from Neuvy-en-Sullias (Boucher, item 55) and several others (e.g. items 56, 71), but its placement and curvature also suggest a ram's horns. The curved crest may represent a serpent, or more likely the neck of a swan or goose, as seen in a figure of Mars from Chaudon (Rolland, item 24; Boucher, item 69). The likely function of the piece is difficult to determine since it is too short to form an effective handle or hilt for a dagger, yet the width of the slot (about 1.mm) suggests that it was meant to accept a thin iron sheet. It is possible that the piece was intended to be a decorative mount for the rim of a bowl or cauldron.
