Roman Mixed Ceramic Vessel Group

Hollow-formed with short hair and a beret, wearing a paenula military cloak extending to the hips; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 110 grams total, 90 mm including stand



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.

Telesphorus, dressed in the Gallo-Roman manner with the long hooded military cloak (folded on his back), was the subject of many votive statuettes in Roman Gaul. Son of Aesculapius, god of medicine, he certainly had a connection with the world of healing and medical care, and was associated with his sister Hygeia. He belonged to the Celtic pantheon and was spread to the East by the Galatians of Asia Minor. His cult then spread to the West, particularly in the Hadrianic period, as attested by his images found on the Wall at Birdoswald.

Presented as a very young child sitting on the ground, wearing a long tunic which covers his body and legs down to his feet; right arm bent and hand raised to the shoulder, left hand curved around an object (absent); sporting the conventional sidelock behind the right ear; mounted in a custom-made tiered wooden stand. 213 grams, 73 mm (276 grams total, 10.2 cm including stand)



Ex Hanna Saba collection, Ambassador to Egypt-USA-France (1909-1992). Private European collection. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12098-218159.

His name was Hellenized in the Ptolemaic era and adopted by the Romans, indicating the mythological figure of Horus the child; he was the son of Isis and Osiris, and adored especially in Alexandria.

Including redware fragments, one stamped 'PALL[..]' and another with a lion-mask spout, bronze crest from a statuette of Mercury, bird finial, bone pin, and other items. 127 grams total, 30-68 mm



Found various sites in Essex, UK. Property of an Essex collector.