Very Large Roman Bronze Crossbow Brooch

Hollow-formed with forefinger extended and bent, thumb in gripping position and other fingers curled around; mounted on a custom-made stand; thumb and forefinger restored. 4.65 kg total, 34 cm (47.5 cm high including stand)



Ex Frits Philips, Eindhoven, Netherlands, before 1980. European private collection, 1980s. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.12056-213654.

Hollow-formed figure of Hercules resting with his weight on his left arm, cradling his club; lionskin mantle drawn over his head and covering his shoulders, back and thighs; right arm resting on his right thigh, holding a corner of the mantle; scaphoid base with attachment holes; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 4.28 kg total, 25 cm wide including stand



From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000. From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.

This bronze was probably a chariot decoration. Hercules is represented here in mature age, bearded and with a cap and body covered by the skin of the Nemean Lion, killed in the first of his labours. This kind of image of Hercules was mainly widespread in the second to third century A.D., when emperors like Commodus and Maximianus Herculius identified themselves as the new Hercules at the top of the Roman state.

With luxuriant long wavy hair and characteristic vertical locks at the forehead, full beard with two large ringlets below the chin, wearing a chiton and a himation draped over the left shoulder, the head surmounted by a corn modius decorated with olive branch in relief, the bust supported on the back of an eagle standing atop an orb with spread wings, the eagle with its head slightly turned to the left, the feathers finely detailed; a finial from a staff or a ceremonial standard. 1.4 kg, 29.5 cm high

Repaired.

Ex private collection, South Germany, 1980. with Gorny and Mosch, Munich, 13 December 2003, no.74. with Christie's, New York, 8 June 2012, no.239 (US $120,000-180,000). Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.11789-206489.

The Emperor Septimius Severus (193-211 A.D.) modelled many of his portraits based on Serapis. But it was under Hadrian that the refurbishment of the statue in the Serapeum increased the demand for small-scale images, like this one, probably made during his reign and used atop of a processional sceptre or standard for the cult of the god.