ROMAN MOUNT

43

Copper alloy mount, probably from a vessel, in the form of a portrait comprising the frontal portion of a female head to a point just behind the ears. There is no neck. The hollowed flat back of the piece has no surviving traces of a solder or fixative but there can be no doubt that the piece was originally affixed to a piece of furniture or, perhaps more likely, a vessel. The style of the portrait is rather strange, indeed almost cat-like, with a narrow face, regressive chin and huge eyes. The hair is plaited into rows of bobbles which sweep back from the forehead. No close parallels can be found for this hairstyle which does not closely replicate any coiffure of Roman imperial date; however, mounts do exist depicting negroid heads which are broadly similar. It could be that this mount was intended to represent an African; alternatively, it may have been a confused and misunderstood native rendering of one of the elaborate hairstyles of court ladies of the second and third centuries. Dimensions approximately 30 mm x 25 mm. Weight 47.13 g.