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LOT 0787
Roman Pewter Cignus Spoon with Coiled Swan-Neck Handle
4TH CENTURY A.D.
3 3/8 in. (42.4 grams, 85 mm).
With large oval bowl and a long, slender handle, compressed into S-shape and terminating in a stylised bird’s head.
ProvenanceFound near Welney, Cambridgeshire, in 1985.
LiteratureCf. Johns, C.M., The Hoxne Late Roman Treasure: Gold Jewellery and Silver Plate, London, 2010, no.81, for identical.
FootnotesSimilar silver spoons (cygni), were found within a set of ten spoons (today at the British Museum with inventory nos. 1994,0408.81-90) with ownership inscriptions. The handle attachment of such spoons had some decorative profiling, and the name 'AVRVRSICINI' within the bowl was inlaid with niello. The spoons seems to have been produced by a Romano-British workshop of Late Antiquity (4th-5th centuries A.D.). The cygnus was a particular type of ligula. This type was characterised by a large, oval-shaped bowl, but was equipped, unlike the common ligula, with a shortened, recurved handle which terminated in a stylised water bird or swan's head (swan = cygnus in Latin).
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LOT 0787
Roman Pewter Cignus Spoon with Coiled Swan-Neck Handle
Estimate £400 - 600€460 - 700 (for guidance only)$540 - 810 (for guidance only)
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Sheet bronze with repoussé design of a youthful maiden standing with her right hand raised to her hair, let hand relaxed caressing a draped textile banner; wearing a palla gathered at the waist and bloused, with a strap to the right shoulder. 21.8 grans, 11.2 cm
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Roman Amber Glass Pilgrim's Flask
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Opening Bid: £500
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'At the moment the cross is brought for veneration .... they offer oil to be blessed in little flasks. When the mouth of one of the flasks touches the Wood of the Cross, the oil instantly bubbles over, and unless it is closed very quickly it all spills out.' (The Piacenza Pilgrim, v. 173, circa 570 AD). -
Roman and Later Artefact Group
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Acquired on the UK art market. Property of a Ruislip, UK, gentleman, by inheritance.
