Watch List notes:

After the Antique (Rome or Florence, mid-15th century), Apollo, Marsyas and Olympus, oval bronze plaquette, Marsyas tied to a tree, Apollo standing behind him and Olympus pleading at his feet; with an inscription to Nero around, 48 x 43mm (Molinier 2; Bange 66; Scaglia I.1), pierced, a very fine contemporary cast Ex Alain Edrei (1931-2021) collection, Paris; and ex Morton & Eden, 25 November 2021, lot 1046 and Salber collection, Galerie Moenius, 23 March 2018, lot 110. The plaquette derives from the ancient so-called Seal of Nero attributed to Dioskourides in the early 1st century BC. Said to be the personal seal of the emperor Nero it was owned by Cosimo il Vecchio de'Medici and in around 1428 was set into a mount bearing Nero's inscription made by Lorenzo Ghiberti. On this plaquette type the inscription on the mount can be seen doubled and it has been suggested that this version may have been cast from a double struck wax seal impression possibly sent to Pietro Barbo (later Pope Paul II) by the seal's second owner Cardinal Alvise Trevisan prior to the original being owned by the Pope himself. After Paul II's death in 1471 the seal entered the collection of Lorenzo the Magnificent.

Estimate: 200 - 300 GBP