Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
The spoon has a wide, fig-shaped bowl, with a slight crack near the handle. The decorative handle, which is rectangular in section, terminates in a molded decoration with two raised lines and a stylized floral shape, perhaps representing a bud (1). On the back of the bowl, there is a small stamp, which might be a floral motif, possibly a maker’s mark.
It is difficult to date this type of spoon closely. Examples have been published and dated to the Roman period generally (2), although others have been dated to the post-medieval period (3).
NOTES:
1. This spoon is quite similar to 1932.56.11.A and 1932.56.11.C.
2. See G. Zampieri and B. Lavarone, eds., Bronzi antichi del Museo Archaeologico di Padova, exh. cat., Museo Archeologico Padova (Rome, 2000) 198-201, nos. 397.a-s, 398.a-p, and 400.a-c. See also the range of Roman spoons in M. Garsson, ed., Une histoire d’alliage: Les bronzes antiques des réserves du Musée d’Archéologie Méditerranéenne, exh. cat. (Marseille, 2004) 42, nos. 60-65.
3. See examples recorded by Britain’s Portable Antiquities Scheme, such as inv. nos. SOM-50DA73 and LANCUM-5C95F5, which are dated to the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries CE; and Zampieri and Lavarone 2000 (supra 2) 203, nos. 405.a-c.
Lisa M. Anderson
