THE ALABASTER PROBABLY 1ST CENTURY BC - 4TH CENTURY AD

The lion monopodium of classical Rome was one of the most alluring ornamental forms from antiquity for designers throughout Europe at the end of the 18th century and early in the 19th century, appearing in the work of influential figures such as Percier and Fontaine and Thomas Hope. They were inspired by classical objects such as a marble table with similar monopodia in Herculaneum (see G. Richter, The Furniutre of the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans, London, 1966, fig. 572).