LOT 0758

Late Roman Hinged Lidded Pyxis

4TH-5TH CENTURY A.D.

3 3/8 in. (64 grams, 86 mm).

Sheet-bronze two-part pyxis with carinated sidewall to the base, lid with reserved octofoil on a pounced field, concentric pointillé rings; working hinge mechanism.

Acquired in the 1990s.
Ex Abelita family collection.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Cf., for the type, the bronze pyxis in the Haluk Perk Museum, Istanbul, in Çulha, Z., Silent Witness, from Neolithic Period to Seljuks, Istanbul, 2012, p.77, 1st-3rd century A.D.

Although pyxides were originally made of wood, as their name suggests, the term soon came to refer, in the Graeco-Roman world, to round containers used for both medicinal and domestic purposes. From the time of the Achaeans to the end of the Roman Empire, we find pyxides made of horn, ivory, bronze, silver, and gold. Women used them to store their ointments, makeup, and toiletries. A pyxis used for medical purposes was called a loculus, while the name pyxidicula designated a container for eye drops, and a tripuxium was a pyxis containing extracts from three different containers.