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_900x900.jpg "Roman Lead Coffin Fragment with Sphinx, Medusa and Dolphins")
_200x200.jpg "Roman Lead Coffin Fragment with Sphinx, Medusa and Dolphins")
.jpg "Roman Lead Coffin Fragment with Sphinx, Medusa and Dolphins")
LOT 0148
Roman Lead Coffin Fragment with Sphinx, Medusa and Dolphins
2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D
40 in. (20.1 kg, 101.5 cm).
Decorated with a high-relief pattern comprising sphinxes surrounded by dolphins and masks of Medusa surrounded by laurel leaves all between Corinthian columns; ropework and floral border strips with laurel leaves above; lip below the upper edge.
ProvenanceAcquired 1970s-early 1990s.
Property of a North American collector.
London collection, 2016.
See Payne, G., Roman Leaden Coffin discovered at Plumstead in Archaeologia Cantiana, Vol.17, 1887, fig.10, for the presence of lead sarcophagi in Roman Britain; for a similar specimen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession no.31.116a-i; Penn Museum, coffin panel B10280, from Lebanon (Tyre).
FootnotesThis item belongs to types widespread in the Eastern Mediterranean. The panel is decorated with a columned structure, and within each section are symbols of the outer-world, including gorgons, sphinx and dolphins. The sphinx, having a human head and breasts, legs and paws of a lion, and wings of a bird, was generally associated with protecting imperial tombs and temples. The roundels featuring the head of Medusa, known for her potent gazes that could turn one to stone, was favoured on sarcophagi and architectural ornaments because it was believed that her image would protect those within. The dolphin was considered to ferry the souls of the dead to the afterlife.
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 0148
Roman Lead Coffin Fragment with Sphinx, Medusa and Dolphins
Sold for (Inc. bp): £3,380
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Roman 'Gloucestershire' Mosaic Panel
Circa 2nd-3rd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £1,105
Irregular mosaic fragment of beige, cream and grey tesserae with radiating trumpet-shaped swirls; mounted in a modern rectangular matrix. 33 kg, 76 cm high
Found Gloucestershire, UK. From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000. From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.
A mosaic found in Cirenchester (insula IX, Chester Street) shows panels defined by a dark blue-grey single fillet with an additional double fillet parallel to it on a longer axis, having an overall scheme of running pelta-pattern. Each pelta is outlined in dark-blue grey and infilled with red, white and dark blue grey at the centre. -
Roman Translucent Glass Bottle
1st-2nd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £130
Having piriform-globular body and everted rim, tubular neck and flat base with small kick. 20 grams, 11.5 cm high
Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection.
The bottle seems to belong to the type 13 of the De Tommaso classification, but with a more piriform body. By the 1st century A.D., the technique of glass-blowing revolutionised the art of glass-making and allowed for the production of small medicine, incense, and perfume containers in new forms. Glass unguentaria, bottles and vessels of various shapes were manufactured with blow-pipes, free-blown, or mould-blown, and were prevalent throughout the all the provinces of the huge empire. -
Roman Bronze Baubo Statuette
2nd-3rd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £247
Standing with hands at her sides, wearing a conical cap, raising her dress to her mouth to reveal her genitals; palmette to the reverse. 26 grams, 48 mm
From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000. From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.
