Large Roman Glass Amphora with Trail

Comprising an iridescent piriform body, tapering tubular neck with pinched and everted rolled rim. 9.44 grams, 84 mm



Acquired on the European art market in 2001.

Indented toilet bottles with long necks are rather common. In Western provinces of the Roman Empire they occur most frequently in and around the Rhineland. In the Eastern Part of the Empire, find places include Crete, Cyprus, Anatolia, Syria and Egypt.

Bow brooch formed as a standing horse with the forelegs forming the catch, hind legs forming the pin-lugs, notched mane and pellet eyes. 8.89 grams, 34 mm



From the private coin collection of a West London, UK, gentleman, formed since the mid 1980s.

A square tablet of testamentary dispositions with writing on eleven horizontal rows and witness names in 10 vertical rows. 24.97 grams, 13.5 x 14 cm



Acquired by Albert Sfez in the early 1950s. Formerly the property of Monsieur Alain Sfez, a Belgium collector; acquired by gift from his father Albert Sfez, in 1965. Acquired by a London dealer in 1973. From an important London collection since 1975; thence by descent.

Wax tablets written in Greek or Latin, were used by Romans as account registers (codices accepti et expensi); for transactions (for example, the tablets of the banker Lucius Caecilius Iucundus found in Pompeii); for lists of goods, inventories, and notes to be kept and archived; for Roman magistrates to annotate the salient events of their bureaucratical activities; for writing letters; for drawing up legal texts of various kinds: legacies, declarations of births and citizenship, reports of trials and diplomata militaria; and especially testaments in private civil law.