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Lot 114

A Victorian silver centrepiece
by Hunt & Roskell, London 1874/1875

21 November 2012, 11:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £34,850 inc. premium

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Footnotes

The inspiration for the design of the present lot appears to be Pliny's Doves, the famous mosaic kept in the Capitoline museum.

Pliny's describes in his 'Natural History' (XXXVI, 25) a mosaic by Sosus with 'a dove, greatly admired, in the act of drinking, the shadow of its head reflected in the water, while other doves are sunning and grooming themselves on the edge of the bowl'.

The original mosaic Pliny admired has never been discovered, although in 1737 Cardinal Guiseppe Furietti discovered a fragment of mosaic at the Villa Adriana in Tivoli matching that description. After Furietti's death, his heirs sold two centaurs and the mosaic for 14,000 scudi to the Museo Clementino.

The composition was very popular as a micromosaic and many were brought back by Gentlemen on their Grand Tours.

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