Roman Silver Ring with Animal

Comprising an iridescent piriform body, tapering tubular neck with pinched and everted rolled rim. 9.44 grams, 84 mm



Acquired on the European art market in 2001.

Indented toilet bottles with long necks are rather common. In Western provinces of the Roman Empire, they occur most frequently in and around the Rhineland. In the Eastern part of the Empire, find places include Crete, Cyprus, Anatolia, Syria and Egypt.

Part of a wax tablet with two holes in the frame for fastening, Greek writing. 45.45 grams, 18.6 x 7.2 cm



Property of a North London gentleman; previously in the Dean family collection since 1975.

Wax tablets written in Greek or Latin, were used by Romans as account registers (codices accepti et expensi); for transactions (for example, the tablets of the banker Lucius Caecilius Iucundus found in Pompeii); for lists of goods, inventories, and notes to be kept and archived; for Roman magistrates to annotate the salient events of their bureaucratic activities; for writing letters; for drawing up legal texts of various kinds: legacies, declarations of births and citizenship, reports of trials and diplomata militaria.

Bulbous body with a dimple base, tubular neck with a trefoil mouth and a strap handle to the rear. 66 grams, 11.6 cm



Acquired in the 1990s from London dealerships and auction houses. From the Lonson collection.