Roman Bronze Bow Brooch Collection

With dimple base, piriform body, tall neck and rolled rim; pinched inside the bottom of the neck. 55 grams, 14 cm



From a family collection mostly formed in the 1940s-1950s, thence by descent.

Standing erect with right hand extended sideways, left arm hanging at his side supporting a caduceus; mounted on a custom-made stand. 48 grams total, 89 mm including stand



From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000. From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.

Although the statuette seems have been realised in a provincial Gallo-Roman workshop, as demonstrated by the inequality of the treatment of the anatomical dimensions, the movement of the body and head positioned to the right, derive from models of the Alexandrian type.

Comprising the upper part of an oil lamp with part of the handle in situ; band of concentric circles and floral motifs to the shoulder; discus with low-relief figure seated with flexed knees, wearing a thigh-length tunic and cingulum military belt over bracae, and a short sagum clasped at the right shoulder; with short hair and beard; right arm folded across the body holding the hem of the sagum; modern suspension ring to reverse. 101 grams, 11.4 cm



Acquired 1960s-1990s. From the late Alison Barker collection, a retired London barrister.

The lamp belongs to the type Atlante X or Hayes II A. The so-called Christian lamps in Terra Sigillata Africana have been classified by Hayes into two major types, I and II. He has distinguished two classes in his type II, according to geographic place of manufacture or origin. Subtype II A group lamps from central Tunisia are characterised by the use of fine clay, glossy light orange slip, and carefully executed decoration using a great number of neatly drawn shoulder motifs. The image of this military officer is unusual, and it can represent an imperial primikerios of the African army after the reconquest of Belisarius in 533 A.D.