Vintage Silver Leg

Roman Silver Treasure

When you’re a vintage treasure hunter you never know what will turn up. You set out in the morning planning to go to an auction, antiques fair, car boot sale or maybe just to mooch around charity shops or antique centres. You always leave dreaming about the wonderful things you may buy and you set your sites high. I don’t always find the treasure I was hoping for, but I very rarely return empty-handed. Quite often I will have bought something I don’t understand, an object that needs research or just a little study time.

About five years ago I bought this small silver leg. A lion’s paw foot, rising to a stiff leaf, surmounted by the head of a man wearing a winged helmet, 1.5inches(3.8cm) high.

Behind the winged helmet is a notch, indicating that it was once supporting something – maybe a small bowl or a saltcellar – it was probably one of four similar feet.

I bought it in a lot, from a woman at an antique fair in Suffolk. She assured me that it was French silver and probably Art Nouveau. It never felt French, or Art Nouveau, but I liked it.

After all the other pieces in the lot were sold, this piece was already lost in a drawer and I probably didn’t look at it for about five years. I came across it again, when we were moving and I wondered if I could make it into a pendant or brooch. Eventually I took it to London and showed to friend who sells a lot of vintage jewellery. It’s way too heavy, he said. But, it isn’t French, he added. It’s Roman.

He was right, my little silver mystery is Roman, third century AD. Now, whenever I’m in a museum containing Roman artefacts I find myself looking for three-legged objects.

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