Byzantine spoon, 4th-6th century
Silver
Length: 14cm
11264 IVP
Spoon with ovoid bowl, the thin handle ending in a point, and stepped at join with the bowl. Intact. Old label reads 'Vieils-atre mars 1889' the other side with a...
Spoon with ovoid bowl, the thin handle ending in a point, and stepped at join with the bowl. Intact. Old label reads 'Vieils-atre mars 1889' the other side with a collector's number ‘510’
Provenance
Louis-Gabriel Bellon (1819-1899), St. Nicholas-les-Arras, FranceOld label indicating "Vieil atre 1889/510"
Bellon was one of the greatest French collectors of the 19th century. Making his fortune in the textile industry, he began to buy and collect archaeological pieces from the Mediterranean world. Until the end of the 1870s, he accompanied Auguste Ternick in archaeological excavations in the Arras region. It was there that he discovered the Gallo-Roman glassworks which subsequently constituted the most important part of his collection. His collection gained notoriety during the retrospective exhibition of French Art which took place at the Trocadéro in 1896, alongside those of Auguste Dutuit and the Protat printers. Today, part of the collection is kept at the Museum of National Antiquities of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the Petit Palais in Paris, the Louvre Museum, and the Berck-sur-Mer museum.
Literature
For an example but with a more elaborate join to the handle see an exmaple in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA, accession number 07.228.85c62
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