Roman Decorated Bronze Bracelet

With incuse profile female bust with copious tiered curls and braids, palla to the shoulder; supplied with a museum-quality impression. 3.06 grams, 21 mm



Ex London, UK, gentleman, 1990s. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13002-244442.

Julia Domna (170-217 A.D.) was one of the most honoured imperial women in the course of the Principate. Almost 600 inscriptions bear her name; numerous coin types portray her together with the emperors; important artworks where she is depicted (such as the Kassel Cameo, the Arch of the Argentarii and the Severan Arch in Leptis Magna) demonstrate that she occupied no secondary position in the Severan regime. She appears, consequently, to be a key figure of this period.

Ellipsoid in plan with incuse profile bust of Athena wearing a Corinthian style helmet; supplied with a museum-quality impression. 0.87 grams, 17 mm



Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s. Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection, since the late 1990s.

Depicting a nude blacksmith seated on a stool before a forge, hammer in his right hand, holding an object he is hammering with the other hand. 0.25 grams, 10 mm



Private collection, North Germany. with Gorny & Mosch, 14 December 2005, no.238. Accompanied by a copy of an Art Loss Register certificate no.S00075379.

Probably a Roman copy of a Hellenistic subject. Some Roman ring intaglios were dedicated to Vulcan (Greek Hephaestus), god of the blacksmiths, artisans, and carpenters. Usually, the god is represented standing or working in his forge, wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a one-shouldered tunic, identifying him as a craftsman. In his right hand, he holds a hammer over an anvil, and in his left a pair of long metalworking tongs. Sometimes he is naked, seated and working.