2nd-3rd century A.D. A lead mirror frame composed of an openwork discoid head and lentoid-section handle, one face of the frame bearing two tracks of ornamental pellets with raised augural inscription in Greek '???..?? ????{?}?' (.for the lady) pellets repeated on the handle. Cf. Spasi? Duri?, D., ???? ???????????-The city of Viminacium, (in Serbian), Pozarevac, 2015, fig.78, for similar; Cf. Németh, G. & Szabó, Á., ‘To a beautiful soul, inscriptions on lead mirrors, collection of Roman Antiquities, Hungarian National Museum’ in Acta Classica, Univ. Scient. Debrecen., XLVI, 2010, pp.101-113. 46.6 grams, 10 cm (4 in.) German art market before 2000. With a European gentleman living in the UK. Property of a Surrey gentleman. Many examples of this category from the Danube region were found in female graves, where they perhaps served as grave goods considered appropriate for their connection with general issues of fertility, good fortune, and beauty, or even as protective amulets. The inscriptions found on votive lead mirrors in Pannonia, published by Németh & Szabó, show female characteristics, and the beautiful female soul as an addressee. Since lead mirror frames have been found in this Roman province only in graves of women, it is probable that these miniature mirrors, filled with glass in their central hole, were expected to serve as ritual/magical tools to assist souls of dead women in the afterlife. [No Reserve]

Fair condition, chipped.