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The Risley Park Silver Lanx: A Lost Antiquity from Roman Britain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 November 2011

Catherine Johns
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Summary

In 1729, a decorated fourth-century Roman silver dish bearing a Christian inscription was found at Risley Park, Derbyshire. Damaged when found, the fragments of the vessel were soon lost, but an illustrated account of it was published by William Stukeley in 1736. Stukeley and later authorities interpreted the inscription as implying that the dish had belonged to a late Roman church in France, and considered that it had been brought to Britain as loot in the Middle Ages. This paper presents a description and assessment of the Risley Park lanx in the light of the greater knowledge of late Roman silver plate now available, and makes the suggestion that the vessel may have been imported into Britain in the Roman period.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 61 , Issue 1 , March 1981 , pp. 53 - 72
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1981

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References

NOTES

1 The findspot can be fairly closely located from Stukeley's description, at NGR SK 446365.

2 Haverfield, F., ‘Roman silver in Northumberland’, J. Roman Stud. iv (1914), 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Brendel, O., ‘The Corbridge Lanx’, J. Roman Stud. xxxi (1941), 100CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 Curle, Alexander, The Treasure of Traprain (Glasgow, 1923).Google Scholar

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5 Painter, K. S., The Water Newton Early Christian Silver (British Museum Publ., 1977).Google Scholar

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7 Stukeley, William, An Account of a Large Silver Plate of antique basso relievo, Roman workmanship, found in Derbyshire, 1729 (London, 1736).Google Scholar

8 Though the printed version gives the date 8th April 1736, the Minute Book of the Society of Antiquaries of London gives the date as 7th April, which seems more likely to be correct.

9 Morin, G., ‘Le Missorium de Saint Exupère’, Milanges d'Archéologie et d'Histoire, xviii (1898), 363.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

10 The Family Memoirs of the Rev. William Stukeley, M.D., ii (Surtees Society, lxxvi, 1883), 113Google Scholar: the date of the letter is given there as 18th December 1729, whereas in the copy of the text in the Society of Antiquaries Minute Book, Vol. II, 106, it is 2nd December. I have followed the text of the latter copy, which differs in some small respects from the printed version, but is essentially the same.

11 The printed version of the letter, followed by Morin, gives Boojcensi, the Society of Antiquaries copy, Boojeensi.

12 The word-order of this sentence differs slightly in the two versions, but appears to be incomplete in both.

13 In the published version, Meldunensis.

14 The Family Memoirs of the Rev. William Stukeley, M.D., i (Surtees Society, lxxiii, 1880), 226.Google Scholar

15 British Library shelfmark 457.g.10. This copy contains the Risley Park engraving and the de la Rue note, but not the engraving of the Corbridge lanx. The latter is present in the British Library's Grenville Library copy, shelfmark G.2643.

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17 Daniel, and Lysons, Samuel, Magna Britannia (London, 1806–22)Google Scholar: Derbyshire, Vol. V (1817), ccvii.

18 Cabrol, F., Leclercq, H., Dictionnaire d'archéologie chrétienne et de liturgie (Paris, Vol. IV, 1921)Google Scholar, (I), cols. 1180–1182. The entry for the Risley Park lanx in this work, rather surprisingly to be found under the heading “Disque”, uses Morin's drawing, taken from the Stukeley engraving, and follows Morin's conclusions very closely. The dimensions of the vessel are given as 12 x 80 in., a misprint for Gale's incorrect 12 x 8 in.

19 V.C.H. Derbyshire, vol. I (1905), p. 261.Google Scholar

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23 Society of Antiquaries, Drawings, Vol. II, 304Google Scholar. Below the sketch, in Stukeley's hand, is written, “A piece of the Roman silver plate, found in Derbyshire in Lady Gray's park, Ao 1726. Stukeley f.” This is the only time that the date differs from the accepted one of 1729, and it is surely simply a careless error here.

24 Morin, , op. cit., 373.Google Scholar

25 In Drexel's typology ( Drexel, F., “Alexandrinische Silbergefässe der Kaiserzeit”, Bonner Jahrbücher, 118 (1909), 176Google Scholar ), the form is no. 1, and the Risley Park vessel is discussed on pp. 183–4. Drexel bases the form solely on the profile, making no distinction between circular, rectangular or other shapes.

26 Hilgers, W., Lateinische Gefässnamen (Düsseldorf, 1969), pp. 206–9.Google Scholar

27 e.g. Cabrol, loc. cit.

28 Strong, , op. cit., p. 194.Google Scholar

29 Laur-Belart, , op. cit., no. 1.Google ScholarKent, & Painter, op. cit. in note 6 above, no. 80Google Scholar.

30 Curie, , op. cit. (n. 3), no. 88, p. 61.Google Scholar

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32 Laur-Belart, , op. cit., no. 3.Google Scholar

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35 Salomonson, , op. cit., 74–81Google Scholar, fig. 6 and pl. XXIV, 2.

36 For a summary of this myth in art, see Daltrop, G., Die kalydonische Jagd in der Antike (Hamburg, 1966)Google Scholar; for an example on silver-ware considerably later than the Risley Park lanx, see Kent, & Painter, , op. cit, no. 160 (7th century A.D.)Google Scholar.

37 Furtwängler, A., Die antiken Gemmen, Vol. iii (Berlin/Leipzig, 1900), pp. 364–5.Google ScholarDelbrueck, R., Spätantike Kaiserporträts (Berlin/Leipzig, 1933), p. 152Google Scholar and Taf. 74.

38 Kent, & Painter, , op. cit., no. 99.Google Scholar

39 Painter, , op. cit. in note 4, no. 7, fig. 20.Google Scholar

40 Morin, , op. cit., 364.Google Scholar

41 Strong, , op cit., pl. 47 A.Google Scholar

42 Stanfield, J. S. & Simpson, Grace, Central Gaulish Potters (Oxford, 1958), pl. 52; pp. 605, 606.Google Scholar

43 e.g. Strong, , op. cit., pl. 51 B.Google Scholar

44 Painter, , op. cit. in n.4, nos. 7–10.Google Scholar

45 For the Carthage Treasure generally, with references, see Kent, & Painter, , op. cit., p. 50Google Scholar.

46 Ibid., no. 88.

47 Dohrn, , op. cit., 117.Google Scholar‘… die Weihinschrift auf der Unterseite des breiten Randes …‘

48 Morin, , op. cit., 374.Google Scholar

49 I am greatly indebted to Professor A. L. F. Rivet for all the material in this paragraph. Professor Rivet considers that the readings suggesting Bayeux may be discounted, and one should therefore return to Bogiensi or a different misreading based upon it.

50 Dép. Indre, 25 km. north of Chateauroux and 50 km. west of Bourges.

51 Dauzat, A., Dictionnaire étymologique des noms de lieux en France (Paris, 1963).Google Scholar

52 Holder, A., Alt-celtischer Sprachschatz, Vol. I (Leipzig, 1896), p. 462Google Scholar, and Evans, D. Ellis, Gaulish Personal Names (Oxford, 1967), p. 152Google Scholar (Bogio-). The graffito BOGI … on a vessel from London, recorded both by Holder and in CIL vii, 1336 as being in the British Museum collection should be in the Department of Prehistoric & Romano-British Antiquities. Unfortunately, the writer has so far failed to locate it: the information given in the references is too slight to enable a proper search to be made.

53 My colleague Patsy Vanags has suggested a link here with the Bodeni of the inscription on the Thruxton (Hants) mosaic pavement (Hinks, R. P., Catalogue of the Greek, Etruscan and Roman Paintings and Mosaics in the British Museum, (London, 1933), M. 35, p.101).Google Scholar

54 Ausonius, , Prof. XVIIGoogle Scholar, and Jones, A. H. M., Martindale, J. R. and Morris, J., The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire (Cambridge, 1971), p. 321Google Scholar.

55 in litt. I am very much indebted to Dr. Martindale for his help on this problem.

56 Dohrn, , op. cit., 118.Google Scholar

57 For a very brief survey of the range and quantity of late Roman silver from Britain, see Johns, C., “Les somptueux tréors d'argenterie”, in Les Romains en Grande Bretagne, Dossiers de l'Archéologie, no. 37 (Sept. 1979), 51Google Scholar.

58 Dorchester (Oxfordshire): Franks, , Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 2nd Series, V (1870-1873), 321Google Scholar; Dorchester (Dorset): Dalton, , Antiquaries Journal, ii (1922), 89CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Great Horwood: Waugh, , Antiquaries Journal, xlvi (1966), 60CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Canterbury: Painter, , Journal of the British Archaeological Association, xxviii (1965), 1CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Biddulph: Painter, , Antiquaries Journal, lv (1975), 62CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

59 Burnett, A. & Johns, C., in Carson, R. A. G. & Burnett, A. (editors), Recent Coin Hoards from Roman Britain (British Museum Occasional Paper no. 5, 1979), p. 110.Google Scholar

60 Curle, , op. cit. Mattingly, H.et al., Antiquity, xi (1937), 39Google Scholar(Coleraine), and Kent, & Painter, , op. cit., p. 125Google Scholar.

61 Painter, , op cit. in note 5 above.Google Scholar

62 Ibid., nos. 8 and 9.