Late Roman Glass Bracelet Collection

Comprising eleven gemstones with various motifs, including: a cameo with a face, a profile bust wearing a filet, an insect with a stinger, a bust of Minerva, a lion on a baseline, a helmetted head of a warrior, a harvesting scene, two with a bird(?), an advancing nude female with an inscription before, and one inscribed 'ZEEL'. 5.33 grams total, 7-13 mm



Private collection, London.

Comprising two cuboid dice, each with ring-and-dot markings disposed 1:6, 2:5, 3:4. 6.23 grams total, 12 mm each



Ex Essex gentleman, previously in a Cambridgeshire, UK, gentleman's collection.

Comprising an irregular piece, polished on two sides, probably material mined in ancient Roman times between the 1st and 5th centuries A.D. 8.3 kg, 54 cm



Acquired on the UK art market since the 1990s. From the private collection of a Somerset gentleman.

Mons Porphyrites (today Jabal Abu Dukhkhan) is the mountainous site of a group of ancient quarries in the Red Sea Hills of the inhospitable eastern desert in Egypt, a five-day trip from the Nile during Roman times. They were discovered by Caius Cominus Leugas in 18 A.D., and during the Roman Empire, the mines officially belonged to the emperor and were the only known source of the Imperial Porphyry, Mons Porphyrites. This dark purple stone was associated with royalty and used for prestigious sculpture and architecture. The location of the mines was lost sometime in the 5th century and rediscovered in the early 19th century. Excavations in the area have revealed the well-preserved quarries and the dwelling places of the quarrymen, and also thousands of ostraca have been discovered containing messages that provide details of how the quarrying took place, and of how the highly skilled quarrymen ordered their food.