ROMAN MINIATURE OBJECT

43

Fragment of miniature stand or altar. Made of copper alloy, one corner survives complete with its leg, measuring 28.5 mm from the top of the knob to the slightly out-turned foot. An adjacent corner has lost its leg (old break) but retains its knob; although the side joining these two corners is now bent, it must have been c. 24 mm long. The side has an incurved base, between the two legs, and is decorated with two relief trefoil leaves. The inside of one leaf has traces of red enamel, but none of the enamel from the other leaf or the recessed background survives. Fragments of two other sides survive, with breaks that are neither particularly old nor particularly new; both appear to have had identical decoration of a recessed panel with standing-arch decoration, with no enamel now surviving on either. The top survives merely as a narrow flange running along the top of the sides. There is some material adhering to the inside of the intact corner, which looks as if it may be a lead solder or filler. The decoration is similar (but not identical) to South Shields no. 3.1 (Allason-Jones and Miket 1984, 92-3).