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Details
LOT 0865
Roman Silver Cochlearium Spoon
2ND-4TH CENTURY A.D.
6 7/8 in. (19.7 grams, 17.5 cm).
With 'swan-neck' junction; facetted, round-section tapering shank; shallow bowl shaped like a flask in profile.
Provenance
Property of a Bedfordshire, UK, private collector.
Accompanied by an illustrated collector's identification tag.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
Literature
Cf. Riha, E., & Stern, W.B., Die Römischen Löffel aus Augst und Kaiseraugst, Forschungen, in Augst 5, 1982, for discussion; cf. Jackson, C.J., The Spoon and its History, in Archaeologia, vol.53.
Footnotes
The spoon's shaft tapers to a point; it was used for extracting seafood or snails from their shells. Spoons executed in precious metals were highly valued items in this period in history, so much so that historians and classicists see them recorded in inventories compiled for noble households. Cochlearia like this one have even been discovered in treasure hoards. The absence of Christian symbolism or of a Christian inscription on this spoon might suggest that it dates from a pre-Christian era, or that its owner/commissioner was pagan.
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