This week I am in conversation with Toovey’s specialists William Rowsell and Mark Stonard who have been responsible for the discovery, attribution and sale of this remarkable bust.
William Rowsell says: “An initial email enquiry led to this remarkable ancient Roman bust being brought to Toovey’s amongst a number of pieces of garden statuary. The owner knew the bust depicted the Emperor Septimus Severus but they had no idea that it was Roman. They had displayed it in their garden.”
Toovey’s Antiquities specialist, Mark Stonard adds: “Despite the weathering it was apparent from the stone and the carving that it was Roman. It dates from the late 2nd/early 3rd century AD. Septimius Severus modelled himself on the ancient Egyptian god Serapis and the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius, with his thick trimmed moustache, long slightly forked beard and wavy hair.”
Septimius Severus was about 48 or 49 years old when he became Emperor in 193 AD. This portrait is of the so-called Serapis-Severus type, which was adopted in circa 200 AD to show the Emperor's association with the Egyptian god.
William continues: “Septimius Severus was the first Roman Emperor to be of African descent and he died at Eboracum, which is now the city of York, having ordered the re-fortification of Hadrian’s wall.
"Our research revealed that the bust had been part of the Lords Kinnaird’s collection at Rossie Priory at Perthshire in Scotland. This impressive portrait bust can be seen situated within the drawing room of Rossie Priory in a mid-19th century glass plate negative stereograph image on the University of St Andrews Collections website.
"Our client had inherited a number of pieces from the British artist Edward Irvine Halliday CBE. There were photos of the bust in the artist’s garden at St John’s Wood, London, decorated with a series of hats including a policeman’s helmet. We believe that Edward Halliday acquired the bust in about 1950. The bust continued to be displayed in our client’s garden until we rediscovered it.”
It is always wonderful to rediscover a lost treasure especially from a garden. The gavel fell at £110,000 for the ancient late 2nd/ early 3rd century AD Roman bust of Septimius Severus and was purchased by a leading London Antiquities specialist against strong competition from an American collector.
Rupert Toovey is a senior director of Toovey’s, the leading fine art auction house in West Sussex, based on the A24 at Washington - www.tooveys.com- and a priest in the Church of England Diocese of Chichester.