Bidspirit auction | Roman Lead Coffin Panel Fragment

Roman Lead Coffin Panel Fragment with Sphinx - 2nd-3rd century A.D.. Decorated with a high-relief pattern comprising a sphinx reclining on a dais surrounded by laurel leaves; ropework and floral border strips with laurel leaves; raised lip below the upper edge. See Payne, G., Roman Leaden Coffin discovered at Plumstead in Archaeologia Cantiana, Vol.17, 1887, fig.10, for the presence of lead sarcophagi in Roman Britain; for a similar specimen in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession no.31.116a-i; Penn Museum, coffin panel B10280, from Lebanon (Tyre). 3.3 kg, 38 cm (15 in.). Acquired 1970s-early 1990s.Property of a North American collector.London collection, 2016. This item belongs to types widespread in the Eastern Mediterranean. The panel is decorated with a columned structure, and within each section were symbols of the outer-world, like gorgons, sphinx and dolphins. The sphinx, having a human head and breasts, legs and paws of a lion, and wings of a bird, was generally associated with protecting imperial tombs and temples. [No Reserve]