Lot 206

Luristan Bronze Finial & Roman Copper Alloy Spatula - Ancient Near East & Rome

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Lot 206
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Luristan Bronze Finial & Roman Copper Alloy Spatula - Ancient Near East & Rome
Luristan Bronze Finial & Roman Copper Alloy Spatula - Ancient Near East & Rome
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Luristan Bronze Finial & Roman Copper Alloy Spatula - Ancient Near East & Rome

Estimate: $600 - $900

Starting Bid: $300

(0 Bids)
by Artemis Fine Arts
August 7, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Western Asia, Persia, Luristan; Roman, Imperial period, ca. 1000 BCE – 300 CE. A pairing of two ancient bronzes drawn from opposite ends of the classical world. The first is a Luristan finial or support, its bulbous body swelling from a narrow foot and tapering into a slender neck that opens to a trumpet-shaped mouth, the surface carrying traces of incised banding beneath a deep green-brown patina. Cast by the nomadic metalworkers of the Iranian Zagros, such fittings often crowned standards, staffs, or ritual furniture. The second is a Roman spatula, likely a cosmetic or medical implement, its flattened spatulate blade splaying from a long, ribbed shaft. Instruments of this form served physicians and apothecaries for mixing salves, spreading unguents, or probing wounds, tools of daily craft that survive as quiet witnesses to ancient practice. Size of larger (spatula): 6.3" L x 1" W (16.0 cm L x 2.5 cm W).

Luristan, a mountainous region of western Iran, produced a distinctive corpus of cast bronzes between roughly the twelfth and seventh centuries BCE, prized for their inventive zoomorphic and abstract forms. Because these objects come almost entirely from clandestine or early excavation, precise function is often inferred from typology rather than context; the flaring, hollow form here is consistent with a socketed support or finial.

Roman spatulae (spathae) belonged to the standard kit of the medicus and the cosmetic table alike. Pliny and Celsus describe the compounding of medicaments and salves, work for which a smooth blade and slender shaft were essential. Their ubiquity across the Empire, from military hospitals to domestic dressing rooms, makes them among the most frequently recovered small bronzes of Roman date.

Provenance: private Englewood, Colorado, USA collection; ex-private collection acquired in 1950s

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Item # 203818

  • Condition: Weathering to surface as shown, but, otherwise, both are intact and excellent with good remaining detail and rich patinas.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000