Roman Bronze Lion Head Furniture Aplique

Exhibiting a rather handsome and charming face, this lion-headed appliqué would have been used as a doorknocker to the home of a Roman aristocrat. Indeed, some can still be seen in situ at the site of Herculaneum, the town fossilized by Vesuvius in 79 A.D. along with neighbouring Pompeii. His features are gentle and welcoming, but as they are those of a lion, it marks the high class of the inhabitants of whose doorway he sits; lion hunting was the legendary pastime of the Homeric heroes and other elite warriors, thus associating with them garnered a feeling of wealth and class.