Lot Essay
Item one: cf. Christie's, London, 20 May 1981, lot 31 for a similar Romano-Celtic silver spoon with handle in the form of a seated deity, found at Helpston, near Peterborough and now in the British Museum.
3RD-4TH CENTURY A.D.
Details
A Roman silver spoon
3rd-4th Century A.D.
With purse-shaped bowl joined to the elaborate handle by a griffin's head, the handle in the form of the upper part of a feline with teeth bared, emerging from volute acanthus leaves, a triangular plate above bent at right-angles from its original position, slight loss from rim of bowl; and another silver spoon with slender pear-shaped bowl and square-sectioned handle terminating in an ass-head, the handle joined to the bowl by a vertical disc decorated on each side with a cross within a circle in pointillé, 6th-7th Century A.D.
3¾in. (9.7cm.) and 7¼in. (18.3cm.) long respectively (2)
3rd-4th Century A.D.
With purse-shaped bowl joined to the elaborate handle by a griffin's head, the handle in the form of the upper part of a feline with teeth bared, emerging from volute acanthus leaves, a triangular plate above bent at right-angles from its original position, slight loss from rim of bowl; and another silver spoon with slender pear-shaped bowl and square-sectioned handle terminating in an ass-head, the handle joined to the bowl by a vertical disc decorated on each side with a cross within a circle in pointillé, 6th-7th Century A.D.
3¾in. (9.7cm.) and 7¼in. (18.3cm.) long respectively (2)