Roman Military Baldric Fitting

An acephalic seated marble dog carved in the round with anatomical detailing; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 24.4 kg total, 46 cm high including stand



Ex Mr U.C. collection, Belgium, formed in the 1950s. English private collection. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11630-199755.

A bronze bell of quadrilateral form, with a rectangular cross-section at base, tapering to a rounded dome with large integral suspension loop with five facets to the outer face; clanger absent. 160 grams, 83 mm



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

The Romans used bells in ritual and secular contexts, when they could be suspended from the necks of animals, worn for talismanic protection or as anklets by servants.

A garnet cabochon with intaglio satyr traveller advancing with staff and pouch over his shoulder, set into a later gold finger ring. 8.22 grams, 27.20 mm overall, 22.95 mm internal diameter (approximate size British O, USA 7, Europe 14.98, Japan 14)



Acquired 1960s-1990s. Late Alison Barker collection, a retired London barrister. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11619-199018.

The subject was popular on Roman gems: Silenus and the satyrs, grotesque hedonists, unrestrained in their desire for sex and wine, and yet immortal companions of Dionysus, were considered ‘cruder than men and yet somehow wiser, combining mischief with wisdom, lewdness with skill in music, animalism with divinity'. The counterpoint of the divine and the atavistic appealed to the Roman sense of moral superiority.