Details

LOT 0700

Roman Bronze Lion Head Mount

2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.

4 in. (218 grams total, 10 cm high including stand).

Discoid mount with a lion-head modelled in the round to the centre, the beast with fierce expression and gaping jaws; mounted on a custom-made display stand.

Provenance

Private collection of Mr K.A., acquired in the 1990s-early 2000s.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Published

Exhibited at the Harwich Museum, Harwich, Essex, UK, 26th May-15th September 2025; accompanied by a copy of a photograph of the artefacts on display.

Literature

Cf. similar appliques in Lăpusan, B., ‘Lion’s head mounts from Roman Dacia’ in Firea, C., Rustoiu, A., Sub Semnul Artei, Studii în onoarea academicianului Marius Porumb la 80 de ani Cluj-Napoca, 2023, pp.395-404, fig.1.

Footnotes

Bronze lions were chosen guardian figures for millennia in both the Greek and Roman worlds. Representations of lions have been discovered in various contexts, appearing on gates and tombs in ancient Greece and on Roman coffins (sarcophagi), where they symbolise victory of the soul over death and evil.