CIRCA 3RD CENTURY A.D.

Details

A ROMAN SILVER SHELL-SHAPED DISH
CIRCA 3RD CENTURY A.D.
The shallow dish with seventeen flutes and scalloped edge, the 'hinge' edge with well-modelled bird's head emerging at the centre point, with incised feathers
6¾ in. (17 cm.) wide max.

Provenance

with Ernest Brummer (1891-1964), Paris and Zurich, acquired 1928.
The Ernest Brummer Collection. Ancient Art, vol. II; Galerie Koller, Grand Hotel Dolder, Zurich, 16-19 October 1979, lot 658.
European private collection, acquired 1979.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.

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Lot Essay

Shell-shaped dishes, often called forme di pasticceria or patisserie moulds, were produced in both bronze and silver. Bronze examples tended to be part of a women's toilette set used as a scoop for water during ablutions: cf. P. Roberts, Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum, 2013, p. 129-130, fig. 137, and also Rediscovering Pompeii, exhibition catalogue, IBM Gallery of Science and Art, Rome, 1990, p. 190, no. 86. Finer silver examples formed part of dining sets, and appear to have been used as finger bowls.

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