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Author Topic: Opinions on Lead Votive Plaques  (Read 968 times)

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Offline Ken Dorney

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Opinions on Lead Votive Plaques
« on: October 02, 2015, 04:40:56 pm »
Two items, very similar.  One on the market just over 25 years ago, the other just recently.  What are the opinions?  I dong want to give prejudice, so I won’t say any more about the two.
Ken
"Man has not evolved an inch from the slime that spawned him".  Dr. Jeckyll
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Offline SC

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Re: Opinions on Lead Votive Plaques
« Reply #1 on: October 05, 2015, 12:27:02 pm »
Obviously from the same mould.  Not just the exact same design but the casting faults - where too much lead has run between the lines - are the same too.

That could be a bad sign, especially with the 25 year difference, in some items.

However, that might not be as strange as it sounds with lead items.  I don't really know what those things are but I am very familiar with the so-called Danubian rider lead votive plaques.  And in the case of the Danubian rider plaques a great number are exact copies.  They clearly came from few workshops and those shops in turn used a very limited number of master or "mother" items to make the moulds to carry out the casting.  Thus it is not unusual to find genuine ancient items that are exact copies - the differences, like with your items, are in the subsequent damage to them.  You can see this clearly in Ertl's corpus of the votive plaques.

So your two items are clearly linked and I suspect not just by the same master or "mother" item but in fact by the same mould - hence the same imperfections.  Whether that means both are ancient originals from the same mould, or one is a modern forgery cast from a mould made from the ancient original, or even that both are modern copies from the same mould, I don't know.

From the photos the lead looks pretty good but you can never be sure without handling them in person.

Shawn
SC
(Shawn Caza, Ottawa)

Offline Ken Dorney

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Re: Opinions on Lead Votive Plaques
« Reply #2 on: October 06, 2015, 12:47:41 pm »
These are votive plaques of Jupiter Heliopolitanus from the city of Baalbek.  According to the literature they were tossed into wells and springs as donatives.  Anyway, I own one, the other by a fellow dealer.  I have not examined the second example, just by photo.  They appear genuine to me but I wanted to get opinions before I offer mine for sale.
Ken
"Man has not evolved an inch from the slime that spawned him".  Dr. Jeckyll
http://www.coolcoins.com

Offline SC

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Re: Opinions on Lead Votive Plaques
« Reply #3 on: October 06, 2015, 01:26:42 pm »
Interesting item.  How tall is it?

The Danubian rider plaques are a bit different - they don't appear to have been tossed away / deposited.  However, there are similar items to yours from Central Europe.  Little lead votive images of Venus and others of three goddesses in a temple (no one is quite sure who they are).  They are the same sort of cut-out design as yours and were disposable.  They are also small - say 2" tall.  They date to 3rd c AD.

Shawn


SC
(Shawn Caza, Ottawa)

 

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