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LOT 0911
Late Roman Votive Lead Mirror Inscribed 'For the woman who loves her husband'
3RD CENTURY A.D.
4 in. (35 grams, 10.3 cm).
Comprising a discoid plate with running scroll border, lentoid-section handle with raised teardrop decoration; applied central reflective disc with Greek inscription to the reverse: 'τῆς φιλάνδρου πάντα' translating to 'For the woman who loves her husband'; with original reflective glass in situ.
ProvenanceAcquired from Brigantia, York, UK, circa 2010.
Ian Wilkinson collection, Nottinghamshire, UK, formed since 1985.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
Cf. Spasić Durić, D., Град Виминацијум-The city of Viminacium, (in Serbian), Pozarevac, 2015, fig.78, for similar; see also the same inscription on a lead mirror from Black Sea Region, in Из истории Северного Причерноморья в ант. эпоха (From the history of the Northern Black Sea region in the ancient era (in Russian), 1979, p.118,3.
FootnotesMany examples of this category from the Danube region were found in female graves, where they perhaps served as grave goods considered appropriate for their connection with general issues of fertility, good fortune, and beauty, or even as protective amulets. The inscriptions found on votive lead mirrors in Pannonia, published by Németh & Szabó, show female characteristics, and the beautiful female soul as an addressee. Since lead mirror frames have been found in this Roman province only in graves of women, it is probable that these miniature mirrors, filled with glass in their central hole, were expected to serve as ritual or magical tools to assist the souls of dead women in the afterlife.
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 0911
Late Roman Votive Lead Mirror Inscribed 'For the woman who loves her husband'
Sold for (Inc. bp): £546
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From a London, UK, collection, 1990s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
