1978.495.62: Swinging Handle
VesselsIdentification and Creation
- Object Number
- 1978.495.62
- Title
- Swinging Handle
- Other Titles
- Alternate Title: jewelry piece or furniture handle part Jewelry Piece
- Classification
- Vessels
- Work Type
- handle
- Date
- 1st-3rd century CE
- Places
- Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World
- Period
- Roman Imperial period
- Culture
- Roman
- Persistent Link
- https://hvrd.art/o/310700
Physical Descriptions
- Medium
- Copper alloy
- Technique
- Cast, lost-wax process
- Dimensions
- 10.5 x 10.2 cm (4 1/8 x 4 in.)
- Technical Details
-
Technical Observations: The patina is green over a thick layer of red. The handle is deeply mineralized, and there is pitting in many areas. The tip of one terminal is lost. The handle appears to have been cast in its current shape, without the aid of additional forming or decoration after casting.
Henry Lie (submitted 2002)
Provenance
- Recorded Ownership History
- Formerly in the collection of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University.
Acquisition and Rights
- Credit Line
- Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Transfer from the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University
- Accession Year
- 1978
- Object Number
- 1978.495.62
- Division
- Asian and Mediterranean Art
- Contact
- am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
- Permissions
-
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Descriptions
Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
One terminal of this omega-shaped swing handle is intact, and the other is missing. The intact terminal is a small sphere with a torus. The majority of the handle is square in section, tapering toward the terminals where it is circular in section. This handle may have belonged to a small balsamarium (1). The handles attached to loops on the body of the vessel itself and were used for suspension (2).
NOTES:
1. Such as those in A. Koster, The Bronze Vessels 2: Acquisitions 1954-1996, Collections in the Provinciaal Museum G. M. Kam at Nijmegen 13 (Gelderland, 1997) 82-84, nos. 110-13.
2. Compare 1920.44.175.
Lisa M. Anderson
Subjects and Contexts
- Ancient Bronzes
Related Objects
Verification Level
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu