Roman Bronze Bowl with Concentric Circles

Modelled in the round depicted upright, standing on an irregular base. 25.7 grams, 45 mm



‘The Ancient Menagerie Collection’ formerly the property of a Cambridgeshire lady, collected since the 1990s and acquired from auctions and dealers throughout Europe and the USA, now ex London collection.

The oval intaglio engraved with a man driving a pair of oxen with plough to left, a detailed tree with branches in the background, ground line under the oxen. 0.38 grams, 10 mm



Acquired in the late 1980s-early 1990s. Important North West London collection.

The gem could refer to the Augustan program of restoration of peace and security in the empire, after the agitated period of civil wars, with the possibility for men to return peacefully to their lands in a now peaceful empire. However, we cannot exclude that the image also refers to the well-known episode of Greek mythology, when Odysseus, to escape the call to arms in Troy, feigned madness by ploughing the fields without interruption, until he was unmasked by Palamedes, cousin of Agamemnon, who placed Odysseus' infant son Telemachus in front of the plough, forcing Odysseus to stop and reveal feigned insanity.

Engraved with two bulls lying side by side, one with the head in profile, the other facing, tree to the field. 0.62 grams, 11 mm



Acquired in the late 1980s-early 1990s. Important North West London collection.

The iconography of two bulls derives already from Achaean models, like the black onyx example in the Metropolitan Museum (Richter, 1920, pl.2,no.3). The model was inherited by the classical world, and inherited from the Greeks by the Romans (Furtwängler mentions gemstones in carnelian, nos.5547-5548-5549 at the Berlin Museum).