Roman Bronze Double Dolphin Mount

Dark purplish-red round cabochon with a fly or another flying insect, striated body and four pairs of legs. 0.56 grams, 9 mm



From the private collection of a European gentleman (1942-2024), formed since the 1970s.

With a hollow spherical body decorated with slightly concave petals radiating from each end, separated by a central grooved band; one end with a tapering funnel marked by horizontal grooves, the other with a short tapering neck and a wide rim. 356 grams, 29.5 cm



Old Austrian private collection, 1980s. Accompanied by a copy of a nine-page examination report number 154/2026 by Dr habil Mikhail Treister. 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 number no.12905-242699.

Comparable instruments, usually called clepsydra in Greek and infundibulum in Latin, were in use in the 5th – first half of the 4th centuries B.C. A total of 13 such objects, or clepsydra, are known, including two of the unknown origin), represented by the finds both from Central (Lazio) and South (Campania, Calabria and Basilicata) Italy, Illyria (Apollonia) and Central Greece (Boeotia, Phocis) (all made of bronze), from the Taman peninsula in the North Pontic area, a fragmented one – from the Ulyap kurgan necropolis in the Trans-Kuban region and a silver piece from an aristocratic Thracian burial in the Plovdiv region. A distinctive feature of all these metal objects is the combination of a narrow vertical tube, at the lower end turning into a container with holes in the bottom.

Carved mould-half for producing slipper-shaped oil lamps, with triangles and rosettes forming a band to the edge of the shoulder. 715 grams, 17.5 cm



From the private collection of Mr Brian Edwards, New Malden, Surrey, UK, formed from the late 1970s-early 1980s; thence by descent.