Roman Bronze Seated Hunting Hound

Two large strap handles to the shoulders, rounded underside, flange below the rim; with a custom-made display stand. 8.9 kg total, 66 cm high (91 cm high including stand)



Acquired 1970s onwards. Private collection of Michael O'Hara, Cambridgeshire, UK. Ex private collection of Benjamin Hyde-Smith, Hertfordshire, UK.

Comprising four bed finials, each with a bell-shaped body and baluster style finial; hollow to base. 1.18 kg total, 9.6-10.1 cm



Acquired before 2000. From the collection of a European gentleman living in the UK.

The Romans, like the Greeks, ate whilst reclined on beds. The eating bed (lectus triclinaris) was a luxury furniture item crafted by carpenters. From the 2nd century B.C., Romans started to create 'lecti aerati, inargentati, inaurati, eborati, testudinei,' i.e. beds made of wood and covered with bronze, silver, gold and ivory fittings or with scales of other precious material. Such elements were sometimes sculpted in the shape of an animal protome, or were simply bell-shaped, like our specimens.

Displaying the face of a bearded god, possibly Cernunnos or Pan, with curly hair and two horns in the shape of phallus; suspension ring to the top. 25.6 grams, 45 mm



Acquired in the 1990s. Ex property of a UK gentleman.

The head displays typical features associated with Romano-Celtic art, such as the lentoid eyes and the schematic rendering of the hair and beard. The head could be that of Pan, god of the wild countryside and of fertility in nature, thus making the phalli-shaped horns appropriate. It could also represent the Celtic god Cernunnos, a Gallic deity whose worship is known from Britain and the Continent from a number of monuments, inscriptions and figurines, as well as on the famous Gundestrup cauldron found in a bog in Denmark. His name means "the Horned One", and is depicted as a bearded male wearing a torc around his neck and with large horns or antlers on his head. Representations of him are known from as early as the fourth century B.C. from the Paspardo rock carving at Val Camonica, Northern Italy. Other representations include the monument set up by Parisian sailors which was discovered underneath Notre Dame cathedral, and the relief carving from Cirencester where his legs are in the form of two snakes. The Celts' preoccupation with fecundity caused them on occasions to represent their male gods with oversized phalli, and a bronze figure of Mercury from Tongres, France, depicts the god with two phalli on his head.