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Knife handle in the form of a lioness

Roman
Imperial Period
1st–2nd century A.D.

Medium/Technique Chalcedony
Credit Line Henry Lillie Pierce Fund
Accession Number98.769
NOT ON VIEW
ClassificationsTools and equipment

DescriptionChalcedony knife handle in the form of a lioness emerging from a cluster of acanthus leaves. She drinks from a vessel in the form of a goat's head (perhaps this is a type of drinking vessel known as a rhyton).
ProvenanceBy 1897, Michal Tyszkiewicz (b. 1828 - d. 1897), Rome; June 8 - 10, 1898, posthumous Tyszkiewicz sale, Hotel Drouot, Paris, lot 235 (said to be from Asia Minor); 1898, Edward Perry Warren (b. 1860 - d. 1928), Rome and London; 1898, sold by Warren to the MFA for $69,618.13 [see note]. (Accession Date: September 20, 1898)

Note: This is the total price for MFA accession nos. 98.641-98.940.