Ancient bronze Celtic lion's paw cista foot from a Celtiberian (pre-roman Iberian area) collection

An ancient winged and clawed bronze foot from a Celtiberian collection of items. Winged feet decorated the base of ancient bronze household items; notably, you can find examples when you search "Bronze Cista", a cista being an ancient toiletries box.

The paw is from a Celtiberian collection of artifacts. It is made of bronze. It measures approximately 47.3 mm across the wings, 23 mm across the foot and 24 mm tall.

The Etruscans are credited with inventing the style of the cista with clawed feet, but the Celts adopted it. The Celtiberians were Celts living on the Iberian Peninsula, and the near proximity to the Etruscans makes it easy to understand why they'd share decorative styles.

Wikipedia tells us the Celtiberians "were a group of Celts and Celticized peoples inhabiting an area in the central-northeastern Iberian Peninsula during the final centuries of the BC. They were explicitly mentioned as being Celts by several classic authors (e.g. Strabo)."

Other examples:

The Met has a wonderful example, which they are displaying online ("Praenestine Bronze Cista" in Gallery 170) where you'll see similar feet, and sirens extending out of the outspread wings.

Bonhams recently sold a similar example, see Lot 39 of their Antiquities from a Princely Collection sale of February 26, 2024 (with a small bronze turtle, sold for 1,216 pounds inc. premium).

Artemis Gallery also sold an example on May 21, 2020, Lot 44a (sold for $700 USD).

Provenance -

We bought a collection of artifacts at auction in Switzerland (La Galerie Numismatique, September 28th, 2024); we are researching each object and offering them for sale individually. You can see the entire collection in the pictures we posted.

In the course of our investigation, we found that the artifacts had several names of places in the Celtiberian region written on them, for example "Salienca". Also, the collection's brooch design was unique to the Celtiberians (Google search "Celtiberian Fibula" to see similar examples). We've come to the conclusion that the collection is specific to the Celtiberian era/region.

Condition -

The bronze has a patina of green. The foot was broken off its vessel and the broken edge extends from the top. The underside wasn't perfectly cleaned and there are some remnants of glue from where it was glued into the collection we purchased.