WWI Christmas Chocolate Tin

Standing erect with left hand extended gripping a scroll; wearing a full toga fastened at the waist and draped over the body; the head with short hair in the Julian style and a laurel wreath to the brow; after the antique; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 98 grams total, 93 mm 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 lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

The statuette represents a city magistrate clad in a toga, the most famous 'official' civil dress of the Roman period between the first century B.C. and the first century A.D. The fully developed toga of Consular and Imperial Rome was shaped as a segment of a circle and about 18 and a half feet long by seven feet wide at its centre. It was decorated at times by a purple or red stripe along the straight edge. The type of garment of our statuette is similar to the one seen on the statue of Emperor Titus at the Vatican Museum.

Executed in oil and tempera and gold leaf; the central panel with the veiled head of Mary with her head inclined towards the infant Jesus supported by her left hand, wearing a red maphorion mantle with elaborate golden borders, over an off-white robe, with gold cuffs; the infant facing to left, dressed in blue tunic and wrapped in a yellow shawl, right hand extended in blessing gesture, Greek inscriptions ΜΡ ΘΥ (Μήτηρ (τοῦ) Θεοῦ = Mother of God) flanking Mary's head, and 'ΙϹ ΧϹ' (ΙΗϹΟΥϹ ΧΡΙϹΤΟϹ = Jesus Christ) beside the infant; the side panels with icons of Saints Kosmas and Damianos (upper sections) and Saint George killing the dragon and Saint Barbara (lower sections). 425 grams, 20.5 cm



Property of a London, UK, gentleman collector. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Even after the fall of Constantinople, icons painted on wood remained the principal object of devotion for Orthodox Christians wherever the commonwealth of the Eastern Roman Empire left its traces. The painted icons are still used by the Orthodox for personal devotion, for display in churches on feast days, and to decorate the iconostasis (partition) of the church. This icon is a portable one, for domestic or travel prayers.

Including a salt shaker with median collar and pierced dome, and other items. 360 grams total, 7-11.8 cm



From an early 20th century collection From a Hampshire, UK, private collection. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.