Romano-British 'Gloucestershire' Mixed Brooch Collection

With C-section profile to the blade, rectangular handle with flare to the upper end, old notch to one edge, repaired. 46 grams, 19 cm



Ex collection Dr. Kuhn-Lucht, Germany. with Kölner Munzkabinett, Cologne, before 2016. Private European collection.

An emblematic instrument of the ancient sporting world, the strigil was mainly used by athletes as a scraper for personal hygiene. After training, which took place in the gymnasiums on tracks and arenas covered with sand, athletes and young people rubbed their skin with olive oil. They then used one of these distinctive scrapers remove the sand-oil mixture before washing in water. These actions are reproduced on famous statues (including Apoxyomenos, one of Lysippus’ masterpieces), on reliefs (such as funerary steles) as well as on countless vase paintings. In Attic and Italian red-figure imagery, the strigil is often depicted on perfume vases, like the aryballos and alabastron.

Including a military belt plate and suspension ring, a penannular finger ring, a Polden Hill type bow brooch and other items. 75 grams total, 12-69 mm



Found City of London, UK. Acquired from mudlark Steve Brooker in the early 2000s. Ian Wilkinson collection, Nottinghamshire, UK, formed since 1985.

Square terracotta tegula with accretion to underside, old collector's label 'Roman Floor Tile (with original cement) from the Bathhouse / Woldingham, Surrey'. 17.5 kg, 28 x 29 cm



Found Woldingham, Surrey, UK. 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.