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LOT 0846
Roman Oil Lamp with Leda and The Swan
2ND CENTURY A.D.
4 in. (77 grams, 10.3 cm).
A Roman North African terracotta oil lamp with grooved ring handle; discus decorated with the mythological scene depicting Leda and the swan embracing.
ProvenanceDr Suzanne Gozlan, thence by descent.
Suzanne Gozlan (1921-2022), a doctor of History and Archaeology, served as a professor at the Ecole Normale d'Instituteurs de Chartres and lectured at the University of Paris 4 Sorbonne.
Property of a Bristol, UK, gentleman.
Cf. a similar lamp in Jean Bussiere and Birgitta Lindros Wohl, Ancient Lamps in the J. Paul Getty Museum, item 358.
FootnotesIn Greek mythology, Leda was the wife of King Tyndareus and queen of Sparta. According to the myth, Zeus, the king of the gods, was captivated by Leda's beauty and appeared before her in the form of a swan. He then either raped or seduced her and impregnated her. The same night, Leda slept with her husband who also impregnated her, as a result of these two unions she laid two eggs, each containing one set of twins. According to later Greek mythology Leda bore Helen (of Troy) and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband.
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LOT 0846
Roman Oil Lamp with Leda and The Swan
Estimate £200 - 300€230 - 350 (for guidance only)$270 - 410 (for guidance only)
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Roman Bronze Statuette of Harpocrates
1st-3rd century A.D.Estimate: £3,000 - 4,000 (‡+bp*)
Opening Bid: £1,250
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. -
Roman Bronze Medical Spatula
1st-4th century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £59
Comprising a rounded leaf-shaped finial, round-section shank with rounded tip. 12.1 grams, 20.5 cm
Found Nottingham area, Nottinghamshire, UK. Acquired from Ancient & Oriental, UK, circa 2002. Ian Wilkinson collection, Nottinghamshire, UK.
Catheters, spatulas, ear spoons, incisory instruments, spoons and spoon catheters, forceps, pincers, scissors, needles and elevator scalpels/dissectors, knives, phlebotomies, chisels, lenticulars and retractors were included among the medical instruments of antiquity which displayed considerable diversity. -
Roman Samian Ware Sherd with Inscription
2nd century A.D.Sold for (Inc. bp): £72
Bowl fragment in burnished redware with high-relief swags and gadroons; one with epigraphic '[..]MIO' legend. 140 grams, 12 cm
From the collection of a late East Anglian teacher and antiquarian who retired to the Isle of Wight in Hampshire, UK. He amassed a large collection of objects between the 1960s-1980s.
The surface divided into panels by conventional palm-leaf ornament reports often the inscription [CINNAMI]. The letter here left could be the end of the stamp CINNAMI, if we consider the last letter O just an ornament. His work was common throughout Gallia and Britannia. He belongs to a period of great activity at Lezoux, but also to a time when the potteries on the Rhine had to some extent displaced the wares of the south. In Scotland we must associate his wares with the Antonine occupation.
