Kunst und Antiquitaeten - Antiken, Asiatika und Russische Kunst

| 75 A Roman casserole made of silver with thyrsos staff on handle, late 2nd - mid-3rd century A.D. Base with centre hole and characteristic concentric turning grooves. Just above the break to the wall, a turning groove and a minimal step towards the inside. The conically tapering wall slightly curved out- wards. Approx. 4 mm below the rim a turning groove, inside and out- side. Inside, below the turning groove, the wall is divided into fine horizontal rows of shallow bosses. The massive, flat handle drawn in at the sides and profiled at the rear end, the rim inside accompanied by an incised line. The front end ending in two profiled brackets, the shape of which originally derives from stylised bird heads, but is already completely abstracted here. At the back left and right inside decorated with a rosette of seven circular punches each, tapering at the front (orig- inally bird’s beak motifs). The top of the handle inside is decorated over the entire length with an incised thyrsos staff. Apart from minimal, already antique dents on the base and a short, fine hairline crack at the rim, almost perfectly preserved and covered with a fine, light grey pati- na. Diameter with handle 22 cm. Height 7 cm. In contrast to bronze casseroles, whose main function was to serve and keep food warm in charcoal basins, silver casseroles are much rarer and served more representative purposes. They were also frequently used as votive offerings. The thyrsos staff from the cult of Dionysus should probably also be seen in this context. It should not be seen in connection with a function as a drinking or scooping vessel for wine, for which this vessel form was also not suitable. The shape and degree of abstraction of the handle clearly speak for a late variant of this vessel form. 302277 I - € 4.500 46