LOT 0149

Roman Bronze Chariot Mount with Bust of Silenus

1ST-2ND CENTURY A.D.

5 1/4 in. (435 grams total, 13.5 cm including stand).

Ovoid in profile with hollow reverse, modelled in high relief with pallium tied at his right shoulder and garland draped across his shoulders and wreath of ivy around his brow; mounted on a custom-made stand.

Private Swiss collection, before 1976.
with Bonhams Antiquities, London, 3rd October 2000, no.202.
Private European collection.

Accompanied by a copy of an Art Loss Register certificate, no.S00038120.
Accompanied by copies of the relevant Bonhams catalogue pages.
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 no.13216-249243.

See Boucher, S., Inventaire des Collections Publiques Françaises - 17 Vienne: Bronzes Antiques, Paris, 1971, cat.42, for a similar possible chariot appliqué of a bacchant; for another chariot appliqué with a Silenus chariot element from Sala, cf. Boube-Picot, Les Bronzes Antiques du Maroc, III, les Chars et l’Attelage, Rabat, 1980, no.602 pl.122; for very similar appliqués for carts cf. Veselin I.I., Funeral complexes with carts in the Roman province of Thrace (mid 1st – 3rd c.), Sofia, 2018, pl.18 (no.5.9.1.1); 20 nos.5.9.8.6-5.9.8.9 (Silenus); Ratković, D., 'Wagon and Harness Bronzes from the Roman Collection of the National Museum in Belgrade' in Thiasos, Festschrift fur Erwin Pochmarski zum 65. Geburtstag, Wien, 2008, pp.793-815, fig.3, for an appliqué in a similar style.

This type of mount was probably used as a bridle holder and placed near the driver’s seat, on the wagon platform or as a central decoration on the back of the wagon.