Lot 143, Auction 4/3/2026: Two Roman Bronze Fascinum Phallus Pendants

$455.00

In stock

Roman, Imperial period, ca. 1st to 3rd century CE. A compact pair of Roman phallic ornaments, small in scale but enormous in intention, made to laugh in the face of bad luck. Known as fascinum (plural fascina), these amulets belonged to the ancient Mediterranean’s great arsenal of apotropaic devices – objects designed to avert the evil eye, repel envy, and protect the wearer through a mix of humor, shock, and sacred symbolism. The larger example is cast in bronze, its surface now mottled with a vivid green patina and earthen accretions from long burial. The smaller is a copper-lead alloy, darker in tone, with a more subdued surface bloom. Both are formed as stylized phalloi with ring attachments for suspension, likely worn as pendants, sewn onto garments, or hung from harness fittings, household charms, or children’s protective jewelry. Size of larger: 1.1″ L x 0.8″ W (2.8 cm x 2 cm)

In Roman visual culture, the phallus was not merely erotic – it was a weapon, a ward, a talisman of vitality. The fascinum could invoke fertility, masculine generative force, and divine protection, and it appears everywhere from jewelry to wall paintings, military contexts, and street-side carvings. In this way, these small objects sit at the intersection of the personal and the public, the comic and the cosmic – proof that the Romans could be both deeply superstitious and cheerfully blunt at the same time.

Condition: More petite has been repaired with break line visible; not recommended for wear due to fragility. Larger is intact and wearable. Both have expected weathering to surfaces with rich patinas throughout.

Provenance: private Dayton, Maryland, USA collection; ex-private F. B. collection, Maryland, USA, acquired between 1990 to 2010

All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.

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