Roman Bronze Fortuna Statuette

Modelled with naturalistic features, gazing left, sculpted pupils and strong lids; luxuriant beard and moustache framing the face; strong forehead with tightly formed curls emerging from beneath the lion's skin hood; the hood with clear eye detailing and the mane with regularly arranged tufts; original iron pin to the front of the muzzle; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 8 kg total, 28.5 cm including stand



Private Germany collection, 1981. with Gorny and Mosch, 19 June 2013, no.3. Ex A.S.collection, Florida, USA. 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.12085-214457.

The head is a Roman copy of a Hellenistic original, of ‘Palazzo Pitti/Wilton House’ type depicting Hercules wearing the skin of the Nemean lion with the paws of the lion crossed upon the breast, his left arm holding the club and the right hand holding the golden apples of Hesperides. The representation of a slight movement of the head also shows elements of the Lysippean Antalya-Borghese type (example from the Archaeological Museum of Naples with the head covered by the Nemean lion skin).

Comprising a shallow discus framed by concentric lines, low-relief image of a standing male reaching for a bowl with his right hand whilst supporting himself by grasping a low pillar with his left hand, filling hole flanking the pillar; volute to each side of the nozzle; maker's mark 'SVRIEPII'. 80 grams, 10.5 cm



Acquired on the European art market, 1980s. English private collection.

The period of activity of several well-known workshops—L M A D I E C , L M V N S V C , E R O T I S , G A B M E R C , and L M S V —is late Flavian to Trajanic, possibly Hadrianic.Based on this, we will not refer to the broader and too approximate dating given by Bailey to his group IV: Claudian to Trajanic.

A trio of artefacts comprising: a Roman copper-alloy coin, likely a sestertius, with worn designs to obverse and reverse, the reverse likely portraying the goddess Minerva leaning on a shield and wearing a helmet; a stone loom weight of conoid form, dated c.100 A.D. and discovered in Egypt; a Roman ceramic oil lamp dated c.500 A.D., piriform in plan with raised borders to the central opening and nozzle, decorative ribbing to the shoulder, conical handle and basal ring. 150 grams total, 33-92 mm



From an old UK collection. From the private collection of Alf Baxendale (1941-2016) part 2, keen Egyptologist, member of the Egyptology Society, trustee of the Amarna Trust; thence by descent. Accompanied by a copy of his obituary published in Horizon, The Amarna Project and Amarna Trust newsletter, Issue 18, 2017, p.21, by Barry John Kemp, CBE, FBA, Professor Emeritus of Egyptology at the University of Cambridge and directing excavations at Amarna in Egypt.