Details

LOT 0652

Heavy Roman Silvered Bronze Bowl

4TH-5TH CENTURY A.D.

9 in. (860 grams, 22.8 cm wide).

With wide flat bottom decorated inside with incised concentric circles, the internal concave surface retaining some of the silver coating; the central umbilicus still visible. [No Reserve]

Provenance

From the family collection of a Surrey gentleman since before 1960.

Literature

Cf. Tassinari, S., La Vaisselle de Bronze, Romaine et Provinciale, au Musée des Antiquités Nationales, XXIXe supplément de Gallia, Paris, 1975, item 88, for a type with same dimensions (22cm diameter).

Footnotes

This vessel (lanx) was part of Roman and provincial bronze instrumentum domesticum, i.e. culinary or domestic utility ware. Such cooking vessels are rare in such condition: some are found in central and northern Gaul, Italy, in Pannonia, Germany and in Britain. Specimens of precious metal, richly decorated and chiselled, sometimes adorned with reliefs, are mentioned by ancient authors such as Cicero (Ad Att., VI,1,13) and Ovid (Pont.III,5,20).