Roman Bronze Decorated Bracelet

Shallow bowl with rounded rim, the outer face with dragged and marvered trails forming a rosette. 42.2 grams, 63 mm



S.S.H., South France, 1950s. Accompanied by a copy of an Art Loss Register certificate no.S00133093. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Such decorated shallow bowls were mainly produced in the Eastern Provinces of the Roman Empire, and some scholars proposed Alexandria as the workshop. They were realised with mosaic glass technique, mould-pressed and tooled.

With 'swan-neck' junction; facetted, round-section tapering shank; shallow bowl shaped like a flask in profile. 19.7 grams, 17.5 cm



Property of a Bedfordshire, UK, private collector. Accompanied by an illustrated collector's identification tag. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

The spoon's shaft tapers to a point; it was used for extracting seafood or snails from their shells. Spoons executed in precious metals were highly valued items in this period in history, so much so that historians and classicists see them recorded in inventories compiled for noble households. Cochlearia like this one have even been discovered in treasure hoards. The absence of Christian symbolism or of a Christian inscription on this spoon might suggest that it dates from a pre-Christian era, or that its owner/commissioner was pagan.

With stepped domed base, the shank square in section and tapering with helmetted head, stub arms, chevron hatching to the chest and male genitals. 33 grams, 56 mm



Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s. Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection, since the late 1990s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.