A Roman Marble Funerary Altar inscribed for Claudius Hyllus, late 1st Century A.D./1st half of the 2nd Century A.D.

the pediment carved in relief with a reclining figure of the deceased in the guise of sleeping Eros, one side decorated with a jug, the other with a patera, the panel in front finely engraved with six lines of Latin inscription reading Diis Manibus / Claudio Hyllo / vix(it) ann(is) IIII mens(ibus) VII / dieb(us) V Claudius / Tauriscus pater filio / karissimo ("To the Spirits of the Departed. To Claudius Hyllus. He lived four years, seven months, and five days. Claudius Tauriscus [had this made] for his most cherished son").

Girisôtis, at his home by the "Forum Iudaeorum", Rome, recorded there by Cyriacus of Ancona (1391-1452)
Gentile Baffi, Palazzo Tebaldeschi (Tore del Melangelo), Piazza Margana, Rome
Pietro Romano, Rome, at his home behind the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome, late 15th Century
Cardinals Paolo Emilio Cesi (1481-1537) and Federico Cesi (1500-1565), Palazzo Cesi on the Janiculum, Rome, by 1597, where it remained until the late 18th Century
Bartolomeo Cavaceppi (1716-1799), Rome
Sir William Petty Fitzmaurice (1737-1805), 2nd Earl of Shelburne and later 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, Lansdowne House, London
by descent to Henry Petty Fitzmaurice (1872-1936), 6th Marquess of Lansdowne (Christie, Manson & Woods, London, Catalogue of the Celebrated Collection of Ancient Marbles the Property of the Most Honourable The Marquess of Lansdowne, March 5th, 1930, no. 30)
Bert Crowther, Syon Lodge, Isleworth, by 1954, sold by him circa 1970

Jean-Jacques Boissard, Pars Romanae Urbis Topographiae & Antiquitatum, vol. III: Topographia Romanae Urbis, vol. III, Frankfurt, 1597, pl. 69 ("In aedibus Cardi. Caesii")
Bernard de Montfaucon, L'antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures, vol. IV, 1, Paris, 1719, p. 84, pl. LXII
Eugen Bormann, Wilhelm Henzen, and Christian Hülsen, eds., Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vol. VI: Inscriptiones Urbis Romae latinae, part 2: Berlin, 1882, no. 15118 (with a list of more than twenty manuscripts dating from the first half of the 15th Century to the latter part of the 18th)
Adolf Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, Cambridge, 1882, p. 457, no. 71 
Arthur Hamilton Smith, A Catalogue of the Ancient Marbles at Lansdowne House, London, 1889, p. 33, no. 71
Cornelius Vermeule, "Notes on a New Edition of Michaelis: Ancient Marbles in Great Britain," American Journal of Archaeology, vol 60, 1956, p. 335, pl. 106, fig. 11 ("possessing one of the most distinguished epigraphic pedigrees of any Roman marble")
Glenys Mary Davies, Fashion in the grave: A study of the motifs used to decorate the grave altars, ash chests and sarcophag made in rome in the early empire (to the mid second century A.D.), vol. 2, doct. diss., University of London, 1978, p. 27, no. 3
Henning Wrede, Consecratio in formam deorum, Mainz am Rhein, 1981, p. 201, no. 17
Dietrich Boschung, Antike Grabaltare aus den Nekropolen Roms, Bern, 1987, p. 89, no. 372
Seymour Howard, Antiquity Restored: Essays on the After Life of the Antique, 1990, p. 260, note 62
Giovanna Tedeschi Grisanti and Heikki Solin, "Dis Manibus, pili, epitaffi et altre cose antiche" di Giovannantonio Dosio: il codice N.A. 618 della Biblioteca Nazionale di Firenze, Pisa, 2011, p. 183
Jason Mander, Portraits of children on Roman funerary monuments, Cambridge, 2013, no. 88
Elizabeth Angelicoussis, Reconstructing the Lansdowne Collection of Classical Marbles, forthcoming 2017, vol. 2, no. 104
Census of Antique Works of Art and Architecture Known in the Renaissance, no. 158239 (http://census.bbaw.de/easydb/censusID=158239 )

Surface weathered from extensive exposure and with chips and abrasions consistent with age. Inscription still crisp. Surface appears less clean in person than in photograph, with overall greenish organic growths and several areas of soot staining.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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