LOT 0276

'The Miller' Romano-Celtic Bronze Leaping Boar Statuette

1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.

2 7/8 in. (165 grams total, 73 mm wide including stand).

Depicted in a dynamic pose with its front legs raised and the weight of the body borne on its hind legs, flared nostrils and large, round eyes; mounted on a custom-made display stand.

Found Hampshire, UK, in the 1980s.
From the collection of the late David Miller of Hemel Hempstead, UK, and a Cambridge collection of the 2000s.

Accompanied by a previously illustrated catalogue card with provenance.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13378-258774.

See Boucher, S. & Tassinari, S., Musée de la Civilisation Gallo-Romaine a Lyon: Bronzes Antiques I. Inscriptions, Statuaire, Vaisselle, Lyon, 1976, item 19, for type; Boucher, S., Recherches sur les bronzes figures de Gaule Pre-Romaine et Romaine, 1976, Rome, pl.66, fig.316, for type.

The small statuettes of boars found in Roman Britain and Gaul were likely used as votive figurines for cult places. They were widespread in the Roman provinces of Celtic origin. However, one cannot exclude the fact that many boars found in Britain belong to the pre-conquest era. One of the few types of bronze figurines that are known to precede the arrival of the Romans is, in fact, that of the boars.