1st century AD. A fabricated hexagonal silver inkwell with nielloed designs, alternating geometric and plant-based; the cover with sunken central circular hole, surrounded by a wreath of leaves and berries; the underside with concentric circle panels and three flattened-boss feet.

PROVENANCE:
Property of a London gentleman.

LITERATURE:
See Hobbs, R. and Jackson, R. Roman Britain fig.54.

FOOTNOTES:
Hattatt, in Brooches of Antiquity lists a plate brooch (no.1016) with an almost identical motif to that found on the lid; he dates the brooch to "later in the 1st century AD".