- 24
A Roman Bronze Tripod Leg With Feline Head and Figure of Athena, circa 2nd Century A.D.
Estimate
8,000 - 12,000 GBP
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Description
- A Roman Bronze Tripod Leg With Feline Head and Figure of Athena
- Bronze
- Height 43 cm.
with stem of quadrangular section rising from behind a feline protome emerging with bared fangs from an acanthus calyx, a figure of Athena on a ledge above, attachment rings for the cross-bars on top, the goddess striding with her right hand raised and once holding a lance, a circular shield with protruding boss in her left hand, and wearing a long chiton with overfold and high-crested helmet.
Provenance
found in the Garonne river in Caudrot, Gironde, circa 1860
Louis-Charles Grellet-Balguerie (1821-1896), Bordeaux
Baron Jérome Pichon (1812-1896), Paris
North German private collection (Galerie Helbing, Munich, Kunstbesitz eines bekannten norddeutschen Sammlers: Abteilung IV, February 22nd, 1910, no. 656, pl. VIII)
European private collection, for most of the 20th Century
Jean-David Cahn, Basel
acquired by the present owner from the above in October 2000
Louis-Charles Grellet-Balguerie (1821-1896), Bordeaux
Baron Jérome Pichon (1812-1896), Paris
North German private collection (Galerie Helbing, Munich, Kunstbesitz eines bekannten norddeutschen Sammlers: Abteilung IV, February 22nd, 1910, no. 656, pl. VIII)
European private collection, for most of the 20th Century
Jean-David Cahn, Basel
acquired by the present owner from the above in October 2000
Literature
Louis-Charles Grellet-Balguerie, in Bulletin de la Société impériale des antiquaires de France, 1862, p. 126
Maxime Collignon, "Notice sur trois bronzes antiques trouvés à Bordeaux," Société archéologique de Bordeaux, vol. 7, 1880, pp. 52-55, pl. III
Comptes-rendus des séances de la Société archéologique de Bordeaux, 1881-1882, p. 11
Salomon Reinach, Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine, vol. II, 2nd ed., Paris, 1908, p. 288, no. 3
Wuilleumier, "Mobilier de l'Afrique romaine," Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire, vol. 45, 1928, p. 140, no. 11
Bulletin archéologique du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, vol. 26, 1998, p. 40
Maxime Collignon, "Notice sur trois bronzes antiques trouvés à Bordeaux," Société archéologique de Bordeaux, vol. 7, 1880, pp. 52-55, pl. III
Comptes-rendus des séances de la Société archéologique de Bordeaux, 1881-1882, p. 11
Salomon Reinach, Répertoire de la statuaire grecque et romaine, vol. II, 2nd ed., Paris, 1908, p. 288, no. 3
Wuilleumier, "Mobilier de l'Afrique romaine," Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire, vol. 45, 1928, p. 140, no. 11
Bulletin archéologique du Comité des travaux historiques et scientifiques, vol. 26, 1998, p. 40
Catalogue Note
On October 10th, 1964, Dr. Felix Eckstein, of the Archaeological Institute at the University of Freiburg im Breisgau, produced a study arguing that the present bronze was the most substantial surviving identifiable remain of an Imperial Roman triumphal chariot. Ever since its discovery, however, scholars have consistently identified it as the leg fragment of a collapsible portable tripod table. The rings were designed to fasten foldable cross-bars. For a related example in the Museo di Antichità in Turin, inv. no. 1135, see L. Manino, "Il tripode di Industria," Bollettino della Società Piemontese di Archeologia e Belle Arti, vol. 20, 1966, pp. 107-114.