Gallo-Roman Bronze Statuette of a Lyre Player

Worked in high-relief with hairstyle typical of the transitional period from the Consulate to the Empire; oval face with a prominent forehead, oval eyelids and clearly defined lines around the eyes; hair arranged in vertical lines combed back from the forehead; pronounced lips, typical rendering of the wide auricles; the lower part of the tunic visible with a well defined round edge around the neck; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 5.94 kg total, 22.5 cm high including stand



Acquired from Gallery Gryphos, Munich, 1992. European private collection. 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.11996-211878.

The head was probably pertinent to a series of funerary family portraits. It has realistic modelling of male features, which speaks of a portrait in reduced dimensions or a reference to a well-known person in the environment where it was exhibited. The portrait is worked only on the front, leaving the back, as well as the lower part of the sculpture, roughly treated.

Decorated with a high-relief pattern comprising a sphinx reclining on a dais surrounded by laurel leaves; ropework and floral border strips with laurel leaves; raised lip below the upper edge. 3.3 kg, 38 cm



Acquired 1970s-early 1990s. Property of a North American collector. London collection, 2016.

This item belongs to types widespread in the Eastern Mediterranean. The panel is decorated with a columned structure, and within each section were symbols of the outer-world, like gorgons, sphinx and dolphins. The sphinx, having a human head and breasts, legs and paws of a lion, and wings of a bird, was generally associated with protecting imperial tombs and temples.

Group of three figures modelled in the round comprising: game bird (beak absent); goose with peg to underside and pierced tail; duck. 42 grams total, 27-39 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.