A Marble Strigillated Sarcophagus, Roman Imperial, 3rd/4th Century A.D.

carved in front with vertical strigillation flanked by Corinthian pilasters and centering a tabula ansata engraved with seven lines of Latin inscription: D(iis) M(anibus). G(aio) Messio Sequmdino qui vixit annis XVII me(n)ses IIII ("To the Spirits of the departed. To Gaius Messius Sequmdinus [i.e. Secundinus], who lived 17 years and four months"), one short side carved in low relief with two crossed oval shields.

Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (1776-1839), 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Stowe, Buckinghamshire, found by him in 1828, near the tomb of Cecilia Metella outside the walls of Rome
Richard Plantagenet Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville (1797-1861), 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Stowe, Buckinghamshire (Christie, Manson, and Woods, Contents of Stowe House, October 3rd, 1848, no. 115)
William Lowther (1787-1872), 2nd Earl of Lonsdale, Lowther Castle, Penrith, Cumberland
then by descent to Lancelot Lowther (1867-1953), 6th Earl of Lonsdale (Maple & Co., Ltd., and Thomas Wyatt, Penrith, Cumberland, Lowther Castle, near Penrith, Cumberland. The Major Part of the Earl of Lonsdale's Collection, April 29th-May 1st, 1947, lot 2295
the manor house at Ashby Folville, Leicestershire
Sotheby's, London, December 10th-11th, 1984, no. 348, illus.

Henry Rumsey Forster, The Stowe Catalogue Priced and Annotated, London, 1848, p. 271, no. 115
Adolf Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, Cambridge, 1882, p. 500, no. 108
Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vol. VI: Inscriptiones urbis Romae latinae, part 3, Berlin, 1886, p. 2317, no. 22441 (= CIL VI 22441), for the inscription
Alessandro Teatini, I marmi Reksten e il collezionismo europeo di antichità tra XVII e XIX secolo, Rome, 2003, p. 124
The Leicestershire Archaeological and Historical Society. Transactions, vols. 34-39, 1958, p. 79
Arachne, no. 11529 (http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/item/objekt/11529)

In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

For examples of 3rd and 4th Century sarcophagi with vertical strigillation and central figural scene see F.W. Deichmann, ed., Repertorium der christlich-antiken Sarkophage, vol. I: Rom und Ostia, Wiesbaden, 1967, nos. 245, 570, 743, 757, and 962. Examples with tabula ansata are known from Rome but unpublished. 

The 1848 Stowe sale catalogue entry reads as follows: "A Roman sarcophagus, found by the late Duke of Buckingham, in an excavation made by him at Rome, in 1828, near the tomb of Cecilia Metella. It then contained the skeleton of the Roman youth whose name it bears – the bones of which were carefully replaced in the earth. It recently stood in the flower-garden at Stowe, and in it were deposited the remains of the late Duke’s favorite dog, who died of extreme old age in 1837. This trifling circumstance is mentioned because to all the Duke’s numerous visitors and friends, this little dog Harlequin was well known as a most sagacious and intelligent little animal; and his attachment to his master was very extraordinary. He was a native of Bologna, of a very rare family called the red-nosed pugs. He was small in stature, but of the utmost symmetry of form. His latter years were embittered by the effects of a quarrel with a large poodle, arising from jealousy, and in this encounter, he lost one of his eyes, by a bite from his furious rival. When the Duke met with him at Bologna, he was a chief actor in a travelling showman’s company; but he could be seldom prevailed upon to display his talents in dancing, after he was purchased from his former master, and promoted into a higher grade of society."