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Corner acroterion from the lid of a sarcophagus(?)
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Corner acroterion from the lid of a sarcophagus(?)
Greek marble, probably Pentelic marble
Height: 18.5cm
Width (base): 19cm, maximum
Length (side): 11cm
Width (base): 19cm, maximum
Length (side): 11cm
Museum number: A16
Vermeule catalogue number: Vermeule 318
On display: Lobby to the Breakfast Room
All spaces are in No. 13 Lincoln's Inn Fields unless identified as in No. 12, Soane's first house.
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Curatorial note
Within a rough recess-moulding the two front planes are enriched with acanthus stalks and leaves, with flowers within the scrolls. The surface is defined with a few but aggressively placed drilled holes.
This acroterion appears to be too large for a grave stele or a cippus and may therefore have come from a large altar, an aedicula, or, perhaps most likely, from a sarcophagus.
This acroterion appears to be too large for a grave stele or a cippus and may therefore have come from a large altar, an aedicula, or, perhaps most likely, from a sarcophagus.
Provenance
Rome; collected by Charles Heathcote Tatham for the architect Henry Holland during the 1790s. See Cornelius Vermeule, unpublished Catalogue of the Antiquities at Sir John Soane's Museum, Introduction, transcription of Tatham letters, List 1, no.12.
Literature
Tatham: Etchings, 14; Drawings, 4.
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