Roman Bronze Votive Dolabra

Conical flask with rounded shoulder and trumpet-shaped neck with stepped everted rim. 89 grams, 12 cm



From an important glass collection, London, UK, 1980-1990. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Well preserved rectangular tablet with a recessed panel inscribed with eleven lines of Roman cursive script, no writing on the reverse, the last tablet of a legal contract probably regarding questions of land ownership between a Crescentius and a Lanuarius into which also local elders, seniores, were involved; the text consists of highly developed legal formula, e.g. testati sunt …, and ends with the note: Actum Goretiano, which may be understood as ‘negotiated and decided at the Goretiano estate’; the fundus Goretianos is also mentioned in various other know legal documents. 27.4 grams, 14.4 cm



Acquired by Albert Sfez in the early 1950s. Formerly the property of Monsieur Alain Sfez, a Belgian collector; acquired by gift from his father Albert Sfez, in 1965. Acquired by a London dealer in 1973. From an important London collection since 1975; thence by descent. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

The upper part of an antefix, rounded in shape and decorated with a 16-armed shell shape; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 342 grams total, 13 cm wide including stand



Found Burgh Castle, Great Yarmouth, Suffolk, UK. From the collection of a late East Anglian teacher and antiquarian who retired to the Isle of Wight in Hampshire, UK. He amassed a large collection of objects between the 1960s-1980s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Antefix tiles in Britain are rare and typically comprise a decorated vertical panel of triangular or pentagonal shape, though some are known to have a rounded top, and they have a lug or a semi-circular flange on the reverse designed to fit into the open end of either the lowest course of embraces on a roof, or into the gable end of the ridge tiles. Antefix tiles have sanded decorated surfaces showing that they were made in sanded moulds rather than being stamped. The majority of antefix tiles in Britain are decorated with human masks, though several other designs are known: pentagonal panels, vine leaves with grapes, gorgon heads, a female head with a stylised headdress, a second design of female head and a man fishing.