Roman Agate Gemstone with Bird

A group of millefiori and lampwork beads and fragments, comprising: a polychrome mosaic glass fragment with leaf decoration and a banded yellow rim; a white mosaic glass inlay with red and black floral motifs; an oblate bead with 'eye' motifs; a turquoise-coloured thick inlay of four fingers with white nail detailing; a blue and a yellow shoe-shaped fragment with applied bosses. 5.48 grams total, 9-20 mm



Ex private Swiss collection. Acquired by Galerie Rhéa, Zurich, from the above in 2011.

Ellipsoid in plan, with a low basal ring, thick convex rim, and carination towards the front, lateral hinges, the knuckles formed as addorsed duck-heads, each with silver-inlaid eyes, a scrolled panel to the rear retaining the pivot of the ribbed D-shaped handles. 1.68 kg, 28 cm



Acquired in Switzerland, 1996. Private collection, Europe. Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato. Accompanied by a copy of an Art Loss Register certificate dated 30th April 2004. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12363-226688.

This vessel (lanx) was part of Roman and provincial bronze instrumentum domesticum, i.e. culinary or domestic utility ware. The form of the bowl resembles a type of helmet with carination to the front, the handles placed as hinged cheek-protectors.

With intaglio scene of a goat reaching up to nibble the bark of a tree, profile old man with a stick to the rear; supplied with a museum-quality impression. 0.54 grams, 11.82 mm



From the private collection of a European gentleman (1942-2024), formed since the 1970s.