And if you are looking ...

[french frank]

This (below) is clearly not something original, since it's in my back garden and cost pounds rather than hundreds, or thousands &c, But I'm assuming that somewhere there is/was an original. The junk shop had two 'matching' plaques, but I didn't get the other because it seemed to me to be of another style.

Question: I took this to be a Roman portrait (with the oak-leaf wreath). Would anyone else think it might be a 'Romanised' but actually 15/16th-c style (sort of like a Shakespearean Caesar)? - in which case the other plaque might go with it. Or does it even strike as being more Renaissance than Roman? Comments appreciated:

[Flosshilde]

I would hazard a guess that it's Rennaisance; doing a quick survey of Roman portrait busts on Google it would seem that men were portrayed either wearing a toga, in which case the folds would be more voluminous, armour - the neck-line at the front looks too high, or bare. I'm not sure about the oak leaves either - wouldn't a Roman have a laurel wreath? (looking at Wikipedia I see that I'm wrong - "a chaplet of common oak leaves woven to form a crown. During the Roman Republic, and the subsequent Principate, it was regarded as the second highest military decoration a citizen could aspire to"

(there was also a 'camp crown' - sounds just up my street )

[french frank]

Thanks, Floss. So a Renaissance portrait? I thought perhaps it was intended to be a Roman, but sculpted (originally) by a 16th-c Italian (?). The matching plaque is of a woman and I don't think she was intended to be Roman - I thought at first she was a Florentine courtesan, but it seems at one point it was also the fashion for the noblewomen to be (pour ainsi dire) topless . I don't think that was ever the fashion in ancient Rome.

The other thing is that although I was told it was 'stone' my hunch is that it's concrete cast from some sort of mould. It's rather weathered and it does look like stone.

[Flosshilde]

Don't take my word for it! - I'm sure there are people better qualified than me. I just felt that the clothing (what one could see of it) didn't look 'Roman' to me.

Whatever it is it will look splendid in the garden - perhaps attached to a wall with a bay tree in a teracotta pot by it. . How big is it?

[french frank]

Don't take my word for it! - I'm sure there are people better qualified than me. I just felt that the clothing (what one could see of it) didn't look 'Roman' to me.

Whatever it is it will look splendid in the garden - perhaps attached to a wall with a bay tree in a teracotta pot by it. . How big is it?

Demn you, Floss - I had to go outside with me tape measure: it's about 25 cms X 35 cms.

I've been examining it unfer a hand lens and the top edge looks just like concrete - you can see the little grains of sand. But the front is smoother. I wondered whether they poured a smooth slip into the mould and then poured the concrete on top. Would the two layers remain separate ? Would they then break the mould to get it out?