1st century AD. A hollow-formed bronze vessel support formed as a lion's claw beneath the nude bust of a female sphinx with nemes headdress with royal uraeus and flanking curled wings; ledge to the reverse; mounted on a custom-made stand. Cf. similar item in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, under accession number 2000.660; Archaic Greek period. 594 grams total, 21cm including stand (8 1/4"). From a private New York collection; on the London art market prior to 2012; formerly in a private UK collection since the late 1970s. According to the Greeks, the sphinx was a vengeful and treacherous creature with the head of a woman, the haunches of a lion, and the wings of a large bird. These elements in combination proved very attractive for the creation of bronze furniture fittings and other items where the spread wings could be extended around a curved or angled surface. The present example dates from the Romano-Egyptian period (30 BC-323 AD), with antecedents in the art of the Ptolemaic Dynasty (332-30 BC").