Roman Mixed Glass Necklace Bead Group

Complete with pin lug, pin and catchplate to reverse; bird standing right with wings folded against the body, remains of silvered detailing to the feathers and head. 2.9 grams, 25 mm



Found The Rodings, Essex, UK.

Excavating an archaeological site at Salthouse in October 1980, Alex Vines found a bronze bird thought to be part of a Roman duck brooch. The shape was slightly different from our specimen, but it confirmed that brooches shaped as ducks were used by civilians in 2nd-3rd century Roman Britannia. The zoomorphic brooches were typical in Britain as many of the birds shown were either representative of native birds or of ducks.

The discoid body with loop handle, volute nozzle and ring foot, displaying a raised butcher's shop scene to the discus; handle repaired. 87 grams, 12.2 cm



Ex collection of a Cambridge lady, 1990s.

Decorated with a frieze of foliage and volutes from which a blossom is springing, the image framed by a green band of arrows, an ochre and cream line border below; background painted in magnificent rosso pompeiano (Pompeian red); mounted on a custom-made display stand. 1.26 kg total, 17 cm high including stand



From a European collection formed in the 19th century or earlier, based on the custom-made tooled leather box similar to another fragment kept in a case of similar manufacture with a label reading 'Fragment de Pompéi provenant de la vente Préat 1868' sold at Sotheby's New York, 12 December 2013, lot 84. Mitsukoshi department store, Nihonbashi, Tokyo, by 1974. Japanese art market, 1974-1978. Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D'Amato. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no 11826-207724.

Our painted stucco was probably part of a decorative frame, like that visible in the cubiculum of the Villa of P. Fannius Sinistor, in Boscoreale, which is earlier but represents a model of continuity through the decoration of the Roman walls. This filling of the tablinum and other rooms with ornamental plant-type columns and panels decorated with leaves and plant scrolls is found in Pompeii in certain houses, such as that of Caecilius Jucundus.