LOT 0563

Roman Bronze Musical Flute

CIRCA 2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.

9 in. (87 grams, 23 cm).

An extremely rare aulos or tibia with round-section body, six circular holes to one side and a D-shaped hole to the reverse.

From the late Alison Barker collection, a retired London barrister; from her collection formed early 1960s-1990s.

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.11055-184396.

See Daremberg, C.V. & Saglio, E. (eds.), Dictionnaire des Antiquités Grecques et Romaines, Paris, 1873-1917, fig.6965; see a cast of the Roman flute from Pompeii, in the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures (inventory 1916.07.0011); Wardle, M.A., Musical Instruments in the Roman World, London, 1981, for iconography (pp.35ff., 115ff. and especially pl.22), and original specimens from Pompeii, pls.1-2; the closest parallel in Palagyi, T., Facsady, A., Romains de Hongrie, Lyon, 2002, p.117, fig.259 (bronze tibia from Pannonia, Savaria, today Szombathely).

The flute was used for religious ceremonies and for entertainment. The pyrrhic, a war dance of Doric origin, was a rapid dance to the double flute, and made to resemble an action in battle.