Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 43*

A Byzantine bronze censer

6 July 2021, 15:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £1,083.75 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Antiquities specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

A Byzantine bronze censer
Circa 5th-7th Century A.D.
The hemispherical body incised with a band of saltire crosses and small concentric circles in the top quadrant of the cross motifs and below the band, the bowl set on small semi-circular tripod feet, with three suspension chains connected to a central hook, 25cm high, bowl 11cm diam.

Footnotes

Provenance:
with Fortuna Fine Arts Ltd, New York.
Private collection, USA, formed from the 1980s onwards and acquired from the above.

Christian faith was central to Byzantine life and united the many people who made up the Empire. Incense burners, such as this, would have been swung at different parts of the liturgy to symbolize the prayers of the church-goers rising up to heaven like the smoke of the incense.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

A Mesopotamian clay cuneiform foundation cone with dedication inscription of King Lipit-Ishtar of Isin

A small Mesopotamian clay cuneiform foundation cone inscribed for King Sin-Kashid of Uruk

A Neo-Assyrian or Neo-Hittite bronze helmet with pelta-shaped cheek-pieces

An Attic pottery tankard with geometric decoration

A Greek pottery alabastron in the form of a greaved leg

A Greek terracotta female figure with a bird perched on her shoulder