Centrepiece - Palombara Alabaster

Rare and precious cup, it is Palombara alabaster, a semiprecious stone used extensively in Roman times and quarried in antiquity in eastern Turkey. There are two goat heads used as handles to lift the richly decorated object. The typical Roman style, evident in many works housed in the Vatican Museums in Rome, makes this piece a refined example of exquisite taste to richly adorn one’s own collection. On the rim there is a small hairline crack.