Details

LOT 0168

Roman Silver Pin with a Figure of a Standing Woman

2ND-3RD CENTURY A.D.

4 in. (16 grams, 98 mm).

Comprising a tapering body with a Corinthian capital finial, a standing female figure atop the capital, dressed in long robes.

Provenance

Acquired in the 1980s.
Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent.
Private collection, since the late 1990s.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Literature

Cf. Cool, H.E.M., ‘Roman Metal Hair Pins from Southern Britain’ in Archaeological Journal, 147 (1990) 148-182, fig.10, no.6, for a very similar specimen.

Footnotes

The pin seems to belong to the group 18 of the Cool's classification. The treatment of the figures in these pins varies greatly, including both the very 'Celtic' looking face on a pin from Cirencester and a Graeco-Roman figure type of Venus standing on a Corinthian capital from London. This great diversity of treatments clearly suggests that these pins were the occasional products of a wide variety of workshops.