A Bronze Attachment, Roman Imperial, circa 2nd/3rd Century A.D.

probably a decorative element for a chariot, in the form a leaping pantheress with fore-paws resting on a bronze ring, the vigorously modeled head turned to the left with jaws agape and incisors bared, the taut body with fine stippling overall and engraved stylized markings, the long tail curled on the  rectangular plinth behind, two attachment holes flanking the hind-paws.

New York private collection (Sotheby’s, New York, June 23rd, 1989, no. 169, illus.)

For a related attachment of similar size in the form of a pantheress pouncing down onto an animal protome in the Musée du Louvre (inv. no. Br 915) see A. de Ridder, Musée du Louvre. Les Bronzes antiques, Paris, 1913, vol. I, pl. 58, no. 915; http://cartelfr.louvre.fr/cartelfr/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=10159). It was found in Bulgaria and is thought to be part of the decoration for a chariot. For smaller fittings in the form of pouncing pantheresses from a Roman chariot in the Athens National Museum see E. v. Mercklin, "Wagenschmuck aus der römischen Kaiserzeit," Jahrbuch des Deutschen archäologischen Instituts, vol. 48, 1935, p. 149, figs. 74-80).