LOT 0093

Greek Silver Medusa Repoussé Horse Harness Phalera Group

CIRCA 2ND-1ST CENTURY B.C.

1 1/4 - 2 in. (14.2 grams total, 31-50 mm).

Comprising: two sheet silver phalerae, each with a facing gorgoneion motif and fragments of a third; sheet-silver roundel with a lotiform rosette motif. [5, No Reserve]

Private collection formed in Europe in the 1980s.
Westminster collection, central London, UK

Cf. Treister, M., ‘A treasure of the Late Hellenistic Phalerae from the Vicinities of Taganrog (1897): New Data’ in Art and Memory, Papers in Honor of 80th Anniversary of Ivan Marazov, Sofia, 2023, pp.231-256, figs.1ff., especially the rosette, fig.3; for Hellenistic phalerae with the image of Gorgon see Sîrbu, V., Bârca, V., ‘9 Figurative Representations on the Phalerae Found between the Ural, the Caucasus and the Balkan Mountains (2nd -1st century BC)’ in 2016, pp.272-321, figs.9.3 (nos.1,3) and 9.8 (no.1).

Similar phalerae were manufactured in the Greek workshops of Olbia or the northwestern Black Sea Region, including the Bosphorus and Asia Minor. These pieces were the top decorations of domed phalerae, used by Hellenistic horsemen, Thracians and Sarmatians. They were characterised by a variety of border designs, while, although rare, some of them have the upper part decorated with a frieze of horizontally arranged floral patterns. The image of Gorgon-Medusa is very common.