Roman 'Newark' Burnished Greyware Vessel

Displaying an possibly unfinished scene composed of robed warriors or other figures wearing Phrygian caps, wide tunics with segmenta, oriental trousers (anaxyrida) and tugging on a rope; later attachment loop to the reverse. 163 grams, 10.1 cm



Acquired 1960s-1990s. From the late Alison Barker collection, a retired London barrister.

The scene probably represents an episode of the Trojan cycle, with the Trojans (usually represented in Late Antiquity with a Phrygian cap, wide sleeved tunics and Persian-style trousers) dragging the wooden horse inside the walls of Troy. In the late Roman Empire the Trojan cycle became often the subject of artistic representations, such as the famous Ilias Ambrosiana now preserved in Milan, or the miniatures of the Vergilius Romanus.

The rounded intaglio with a horseman, helmetted or wearing a causia, with flying cloak, riding towards left. 0.27 grams, 9 mm



Acquired in the late 1980s-early 1990s. Important North West London collection.

The cap (kausia) was typical of Hellenistic military dress and had been worn by cavalrymen since Alexander’s campaigns of the 4th century BC. The gemstone could represent an Italic cavalrymen, a socius (ally) of the Roman army. Another possibility is that the gemstone follows Etruscan influence, like the example in the British Museum, accession no. 1872,0604.156. The kausia cap had also its metallic counterpart, worn by the Tarentine cavalrymen of the Hellenistic period.

Displaying a raised chi-rho motif to one face; pierced for suspension. 1.43 grams, 17 mm



Acquired on the German art market around 2000s. From the collection of an EU gentleman living in the UK.