Roman Agate Cameo of a Theatre Mask

Tongue-shaped in plan with knop finial and three pierced lugs to the reverse; raised rim enclosing a scene with advancing gladiator and a lion(?) preparing to attack. 19.1 grams, 49 mm



Ex London and Home Counties gentleman, R.W., 1970s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

All E38 buckles probably originally had a kidney-shaped bow (T-shaped), a prong with a rectangular, undecorated shield, and a U-shaped hinge fitting with a finial depicting a man fighting a lion. This could be a rider stabbing the prone animal with his lance, or a gladiator with a raised shield killing a lion with a sword or lance. The reliefs are surrounded by a border of varying design. Depending on the width of the fitting, the number of rear pierced pegs varies between from two to three.

With bulbous body, tubular neck, broad everted rim; extensive iridescence. 10.6 grams, 70 mm



From an important London collection of glass, 1990s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Similar bottles were found in the Cemetery of Ein-Gedi in the Judaean Desert, in a settlement abandoned in 40-37 B.C, and in Homs, Syria, dated to the first half of the first century A.D. These are among the first earliest datable blown bottles.

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.