GRANDE CLEF ANTIQUE DITE «CLEF DE TARARE»

in iron and bronze. The barrel has a hollow, circular receiver, and the bit has two adjoining iron bolts. The key handle is particularly noteworthy: made entirely of bronze, it depicts Silenus seated on a wineskin, the neck of which he is clasping with his right hand, his eyes inlaid with silver and his nipples inlaid with copper. His left hand holds a bunch of grapes. The group stands on a large crater with squared body and two handles (one missing). Gallo-Roman period. Lyonnaise Gaul, 2nd century A.D. Total length: 25.9 cm - Handle height: 12.8 cm Bit: 9 cm (Oxidation, wear and missing parts) PROVENANCE - Discovered in a vineyard on the mountain of Tarare (Rhône, France) in the 19th century. - Collection of Madame Napolier in Tarare (Rhône, France). - Exposition Universelle de 1867 (n°865). - By inheritance to the present day. BIBLIOGRAPHY - "Une clef antique" in Le Magasin Pittoresque, 1867. Reproduced on page 384. - F. Liger, La ferronerie ancienne et moderne, Tome II, Paris 1875. Reproduced on plate 41. - E.-O. Lami, Dictionnaire encyclopédique et biographique, Tome III, Paris 1883. Reproduced on page 516. - H.-R. d'Allemagne, La Serrurerie ancienne à l'Exposition Universelle de 1900, Saint-Cloud, 1902. P. 18. Key of Tarare Great antique keys are very rare, and the examples preserved in museums can in no way rival the one presented here(1), which remains "the most famous Roman key that has come down to us", according to Henry-René d'Allemagne in 1902. Our exceptional "Tarare" key was found in a vineyard a short distance from the town of Tarare (Rhône) and has been the subject of lengthy and hazardous dissertations... Its size and quality suggest that it was used to close the door of a considerable villa. (1) The only three other keys that can be stylistically compared to ours are in the Musée du Louvre [BR3665], the Cleveland Museum of Art [John L. Severance Fund 1952.586] and the Getty Museum [96.AC.197] respectively, although they are all smaller. The literature on this remarkable object also conjectures that this key must have closed the door of a cella vinaria: an outbuilding of a vineyard, where vessels filled with new wine were deposited after the harvest. Other archaeologists, however, have suggested that the key may belong to a temple... Whatever door this museum object was intended to open, it had been lost again since the beginning of the 20th century, and its presentation for sale for the first time in its history represents a precious rediscovery.