Details

LOT 0147

Roman Lead Coffin Panel Fragment with Sphinx

2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.

15 in. (3.3 kg, 38 cm).

Decorated with a high-relief pattern comprising a sphinx reclining on a dais surrounded by laurel leaves; ropework and floral border strips with laurel leaves; raised lip below the upper edge. [No Reserve]

Provenance

Acquired 1970s-early 1990s.
Property of a North American collector.
London collection, 2016.

Literature

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).

Footnotes

This item belongs to types widespread in the Eastern Mediterranean. The panel is decorated with a columned structure, and within each section were symbols of the outer-world, like 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.