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LOT 0113
Large Eastern Roman Green Glass Bottle with Iridescence
2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.
11 5/8 in. (945 grams, 29.5 cm high).
Piriform in profile with a narrow neck and flared mouth with a chamfered rim, dimple base.
ProvenanceFrom the Xavier Guerrand-Hermès private collection.
with Artcurial, Paris, 25 March 2014, no.39.
Private collection, London, UK.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12959-245241.
Cf. similar specimen in Kunstmuseum Luzern, 3000 Jahre Glaskunst, Luzern, 1981, p.78, no.253.
FootnotesOn ancient glass, iridescence is the soft play of colour that develops as the surface ages and becomes silica-rich. Minute layers form over time and break light into shifting blues, greens and golds. It is not a modern finish but something time has drawn out of the material itself, so the pattern and palette are unique to each piece. Collectors prize good, stable iridescence because it lifts the form: ribs read more crisply, profiles glow, and simple vessels take on depth and movement. Museums now tend to preserve these surfaces rather than polish them away, recognising both their beauty and what they tell us about an object’s long life (though it is not, by itself, a dating test). For display, iridescent glass performs brilliantly under gentle, directional light, where the colours “turn” as the vessel is moved. Well-preserved, even iridescence of this quality is not common and adds materially to the presence and desirability of the piece.
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 0113
Large Eastern Roman Green Glass Bottle with Iridescence
Estimate £2,500 - 3,500€2,900 - 4,060 (for guidance only)$3,380 - 4,730 (for guidance only)
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Roman Rock Crystal Sleeping Dog
1st-2nd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £2,860
Carved in the round model of a recumbent canine with head resting on the forelegs; leaf-shaped ears, and deep-set eyes. 14.2 grams, 40 mm
Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s. Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection, since the late 1990s. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12588-232168.
The small rock crystal sculpture is modelled on similar figures representing sleeping hunting dogs. The subject occurs in cameos, plastic vases, as well as in lamps. These images have symbolic value, implying something of the fidelity of the dogs they depict, as well as their bravery and dependability as guardians. -
Roman Marble Head of a Woman
3rd-4th century A.D.Estimate: £6,000 - 8,000 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £3,000
Carved in three-quarter view, with hair dressed in a chignon with frontal band and wavy segments; soft facial features with much detailing remaining to the proper right eye and mouth; likely a frieze fragment; mounted on an old collector's display stand with typed label 'Marble, woman's head / Egypt / C.25-100 A.D. / Cat.No. 6169'. 8.45 kg, 39 cm high
Acquired in trade from the San Franciscanum Museum, Israel, prior to 1980. with Archaeologia, pre 1983, Switzerland and Canada. 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.12964-242755.
The arrangement of the hair is characteristic of female portraits dating between the late Severan and Tetrarchic periods. The head, due to the treatment of the hair, finds comparisons with a female portrait in the Museo Nazionale Romano, depicting an elderly woman of the Antonine era, and with another female portrait in the same museum, dated to the third decade of the 3rd century A.D., reworked in the Tetrarchic period, and which showed a Severan so-called Nest Frisur hairstyle. The sculpture in question can therefore be dated between the full 3rd century A.D. and the first decades of the 4th century A.D. based on the hairstyle, the shape of eyes and eyebrows. -
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Roman Marble Figure of a Phrygian Deity on Horseback
Circa 2nd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £14,040
The rider, Mithras-Sabatios, wearing a distinctive knee-length belted tunic and Persian trousers, with a riding cloak secured at each shoulder and the end folded over as a cowl; the left hand gathering the reins and the right extending a patera in offering; the horse surmounting a capital, with its remains preserved beneath the belly; mounted on a custom-made stand. 4.3 kg, 25.5 cm
Private collection, Bavaria, since the 1980s. Anonymous Sale; Gorny & Mosch, 29 June 2011, no.234. Acquired by the present owner at the above sale. Accompanied by a copy of the relevant Gorny & Mosch catalogue pages. 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.12965-245245.
The composition closely recalls a small bronze of Mithras on horseback in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Getty Villa), acc. no. 71.AB.160. The rider's Eastern (Persian) costume suggests his identification with Mithras, the focus of a mystery religion which spread among the Roman legions from the 1st century BC onwards. The horse appears to be passing over a column, indicating that the piece likely formed part of a larger furniture mount or architectural fitting. If so, this would be an exceptionally rare representation, as equestrian images of Mithras are markedly less common than the familiar tauroctony.
