A Romano-Celtic bronze and enamel vessel section
Circa 1st-3rd Century A.D.
Of domed form with a bronze bulls-head shaped plate on one side, the exterior decorated with four bands of cloisonné enamel, the top band composed of crescents, the three lower bands of interlocking commas or waves, in red, blue and turquoise enamel, possibly the upper section of a small situla, 14.7cm diam.注脚Provenance:
Private collection, France, 1990s.
French art market, 2002.
Anonymous sale; Bonhams, London, 23 October 2013, lot 143.

The present lot would appear to be the upper section of an enamel situla, now missing its base. Similar composite enamel vessels have been excavated in Britain, including at Bartlow Hills, Cambridgeshire. Such vessels would have been made in multiple parts and soldered together, as it was not technically possible to execute larger enamel work vessels in one piece. It has been suggested that this lot is British in origin but another example of an elaborately enamelled Roman bronze flask formed in two parts, dated to 250–300 A.D., was found in Charente, France (see The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acc. no. 47.100.5).

For a discussion of large elaborate enamelled vessels such as the Staffordshire Moorlands Pan, see D. Breeze (ed.), The First Souvenirs - Enamelled Vessels from Hadrian's Wall, Cumberland & Westmorland Antiquarian & Archaeol. Soc., 2012.