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LOT 0176
Roman Bronze Medical Tool Collection
3RD CENTURY A.D.
1 3/4 x 10 3/8 in. (501 grams, 32.4 x 26.4 cm).
Including suture needle, bulbous probe, cosmetic or medical spoon, tweezers and other items, all mounted on a rigid board in a wooden frame.
Provenancewith Auktionshaus Owl, Bielefeld, Auction 37, 28 September 2013, no.37609.
European private collection.
See Milne, J.S., Surgical Instruments in Greek and Roman Times, Oxford, 1907.
CONDITIONTimeLine Auctions follows a vetting process to ensure the authenticity and legality of all items, reinforcing our commitment to integrity and responsible trading. Each antiquity, antique, and coin lot undergoes thorough examination by a vetting committee of at least ten external specialists, professional trade association members, scientists, and archaeologists: Our Vetting Process
AUCTIONS:
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Roman Blue Cut Glass Bead Necklace
1st century A.D.and laterEstimate: £400 - 600 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £160
Mainly polyhedral and biconical beads with oblate spacers, with later clear glass beads. 89 grams, 73 cm long
with a London, UK gallery 1971. -
Roman Bronze Fortuna Statuette
Circa 2nd-3rd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £143
The goddess standing wearing a knee-length robe, bearing a cornucopia on her left arm. 89 grams total, 87 mm including stand
From 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.
Statuettes of Fortuna, the goddess of Chance, were evidently popular during the Roman Imperial times judging from the large number that have been found, and with the advent of the cult of Isis inside the Roman Empire the two divinities were identified as a single goddess. -
Large Roman Bronze Staff Finial with Bust of Serapis
Circa 2nd century A.D.Estimate: £60,000 - 80,000 (‡+bp*)
Opening Bid: £27,778
With luxuriant long wavy hair and characteristic vertical locks at the forehead, full beard with two large ringlets below the chin, wearing a chiton and a himation draped over the left shoulder, the head surmounted by a corn modius decorated with olive branch in relief, the bust supported on the back of an eagle standing atop an orb with spread wings, the eagle with its head slightly turned to the left, the feathers finely detailed; a finial from a staff or a ceremonial standard. 1.4 kg, 29.5 cm high
Repaired.
Ex private collection, South Germany, 1980. with Gorny and Mosch, Munich, 13 December 2003, no.74. with Christie's, New York, 8 June 2012, no.239 (US $120,000-180,000). 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.11789-206489.
The Emperor Septimius Severus (193-211 A.D.) modelled many of his portraits based on Serapis. But it was under Hadrian that the refurbishment of the statue in the Serapeum increased the demand for small-scale images, like this one, probably made during his reign and used atop of a processional sceptre or standard for the cult of the god.