Roman and Later Artefact Group

A carved marble head with large lentoid eyes and wavy hair; mounted on a custom-made stand. 8.9 kg total, 37 cm high including stand



French collection, 1960s-early 2000s. From an important Paris gallery, France.

A series of portrait heads, busts and marble statues from the 5th-6th century A.D. Ephesus, show great affinity with this sculpture. This typology of portraits shows how the late Roman art progressed in the search for a characterisation. The hair is deeply worked with a drill creating a chiaroscuro and immobile mass, the face is treated with large expressive folds, making this head a magnificent expression of late Imperial Roman art.

A copper-alloy zoomorphic plate brooch, in the shape of a deer with two legs, a short tail and a complete antler, characterised by a series of transverse grooves, the body of the animal with the inscription 'FLAINA' in Latin letters; pin lugs and remains of ferrous pin to the reverse. 11.5 grams, 41 mm



Acquire in the 1990s. Ex Cambridgeshire, UK, collection.

Roman fibulae came in a variety of shapes and embellishments. In the Roman Empire, the fibula was both functional and decorative, as men and women wore it to fasten their aprons and cloaks. A similar function was performed by pins intended to hold heavy garments such as cloaks. This type of fibulae were probably produced in Pannonia, from where they were exported around the Empire. Another centre of production of deer fIbulae was probably Roman Britannia.

A hollow-formed gold finger ring with facetted shoulders, inset cabochon intaglio of Eros (Cupid) in flight. 3.22 grams, 24.20 mm overall, 16.84 mm internal diameter (approximate size British J 1/2, USA 5, Europe 9.32, Japan 9)



Acquired early 1990s. Ex private American collection; thence by descent. Private Swiss collection since 1998.