A ROMAN MARBLE CINERARY VASE, 1ST CENTURY A.D. | A Roman Marble Cinerary Vase

with splayed foot, the body carved in front with a rectangular panel of inscription left blank above two confronted griffins flanking a candelabrum, on each side with a mask of bearded Dionysos crowned with a wreath of ivy leaves and berries, and on the back with a sprig of ivy growing from a calyx of acanthus radiating from the splayed foot, the domed lid decorated with radiating overlapping leaves and surmounted by a lion devouring its prey; the lion's hindquarters restored.

European private collection, 18th Century (based on restoration techniques)
probably Daniel Gurney, FSA, archaeologist and banker (1791-1880), North Runcton Hall, Norfolk
by descent to his son, Sir Somerville Gurney (1837-1917)
to his daughter Mabel Gurney, Lady Curtis  who married Sir William Curtis, 4th Bt. (1859-1916)
certainly ​Constance Mabel Curtis (d.1953), their daughter, who married Lionel Harrisson
by descent to her grand daughter, the present owner

For related lion finials on cinerary urns in the Archaeological Museum in Aquileia see V. Santa Maria Scrinari, Museo archeologico di Aquileia. Catalogo delle sculture romane, 1972, nos. 315, 316, and 319-321, all dated in the 1st Century A.D.