Roman Bronze Phallic Mount

With large piriform body and dimpled base; funicular, waisted neck and rolled rim. 85 grams, 19 cm high



Acquired in the 1970s, thence by descent 2012. Private UK collection, Cambridge, UK. Property of an East Sussex, UK, gentleman.

Worked in high-relief with hairstyle typical of the transitional period from the Consulate to the Empire; oval face with a prominent forehead, oval eyelids and clearly defined lines around the eyes; hair arranged in vertical lines combed back from the forehead; pronounced lips, typical rendering of the wide auricles; the lower part of the tunic visible with a well defined round edge around the neck; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 5.94 kg total, 22.5 cm high including stand



Acquired from Gallery Gryphos, Munich, 1992. European private collection. 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.11996-211878.

The head was probably pertinent to a series of funerary family portraits. It has realistic modelling of male features, which speaks of a portrait in reduced dimensions or a reference to a well-known person in the environment where it was exhibited. The portrait is worked only on the front, leaving the back, as well as the lower part of the sculpture, roughly treated.

With a recessed panel on one side and scored frame with securing hole to one long side; seven lines of inked text in Roman cursive containing the record of a legal document in a formulaic legal language; two part-lines of cursive text to reverse; supplied with two monochrome photographs of the tablet displaying the text to advantage. 19.91 grams, 12.5 x 7.5 cm



From an important London collection since 1975. Accompanied by a collection of two 1970s photographs of the the tablet.