A CHARMING LATE ROMAN SILVER PLATE, 4TH CENTURY AD

A charming Roman silver gilt plate from the period of the late empire copying earlier prototypes of the first century. The central tondo shows a satyr seated on a rock playing a lyre in front of an altar on top of which a fire of pine cones seems to be burning. At the base of the altar there is a bucranium. Around the central tondo is a running wreath motif, often seen on silverware of this period. Bacchic subjects were very popular during this period for domestic silverware and endured well into the Byzantine period.
Silver and gold. Roman 4th.c.A.D.
20.3 by 2.8 cm.

PROVENANCE
Private collection Austria, before 1990