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LOT 0793
Roman Bronze Erotic Mount
1ST-4TH CENTURY A.D.
1 3/8 in. (9.14 grams, 35 mm).
Modelled in the round fragment depicting a couple embracing. [No Reserve]
ProvenanceFrom 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.
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AUCTIONS:
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Roman Gold Earrings with Pillar Drops
1st-2nd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £520
Matched pair, each a wire hoop with hook-and-eye closure, domed shield with central filigree ring, radiating granules and braided filigree to the rim; corrugated tubular dangle with granule cluster finial. 5.40 grams Total, 40.15-16.55 mm
Property of an Essex, UK, lady; received by descent from her grandfather. -
Roman Bronze Ring with Recumbent Deer Facing Back Gemstone
2nd-4th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £124
With a slender D-section hoop, square raised bezel set with red carnelian intaglio, engraved with a recumbent deer before a small tree, its head resting on its back and a long arrow piercing its back. 2.30 grams, 21.32 mm overall, 16.00 mm internal diameter (approximate size British K, USA 5 1/4, Europe 9.95, Japan 9)
Private collection formed since the 1940s. UK art market. Property of an Essex, UK, gentleman.
The iconography may refer to a version of a tradition in which Heracles shot the Ceryneian hind before it crossed the river Ladon. -
Roman Marble Portrait of a Boy as Worshipper of Isis
Early 3rd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £17,550
Carved head of a prepubescent worshipper of Isis, with soft facial features, long nose, small downturned mouth, heavy-lidded eyes, the whole giving the face a sombre or mournful appearance; the hair textured to indicate a short cut and combed forward across the scalp, sidelock above the right ear; mounted on a 16th century carved breccia upper body with leather cuirass and pteruges to right shoulder, cloak draped across the shoulders and fastened at the clavicle on the right side with a disc-brooch; socle base; some restoration. 19.6 kg total, 51.5 cm including stand
North German private collection, 1970s, and thence by descent. Antiquities, Bonhams, London, 5 October 2011, no.136. 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.12185-222445.
The child is depicted as a worshipper of Isis with the right side of the head signalling that the boy was a devotee of the goddess’s cult. The head of the boy is probably a funerary portrait, and it is clearly in the first half of 3rd century style. Its resemblance to the portrait of Gordian III on the so-called sarcophagus of Acilia is impressive, so much so that this was probably the reason for which the head was incorporated within a military bust in the 16th century.