An important ancient Roman carved marble head and shoulders portrait bust of Septimius Severus, circa late 2nd/early 3rd century AD, Serapis type, the slightly over life-size head with thick trimmed moustache and long slightly forked beard, his wavy hair worked with four flowing locks at the forehead, his almond-shaped eyes with articulated pupils, raised on a later socle, overall height 81.5cm, width 58cm.

Provenance: Lords Kinnaird, Rossie Priory, Perthshire, Scotland; Edward Irvine Halliday CBE and thence by descent.

Note: 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. Please note: as this is a negative image, it needs to be inverted to view it correctly; this will therefore place the medallion on the chest of Septimius on the correct side. Please see our website images to see this image reversed. Accompanying this lot, there are also numerous black and white photographs, thought to be taken in the 1950s, showing Edward Halliday and his family with the bust in his garden in St John's Wood, London. Septimius Severus was about forty-eight or forty-nine 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.

With thanks to Reverend Professor Martin Henig for his assistance in establishing the provenance of this lot.