Ash Chest

Ash chest, simply decorated with a framed inscription panel on the front, the sides and the back are smoothly worked but undecorated. The original interior cavity is roughly worked. The top edges of the ash chest werre shaped to hold a lid and have an intermittent groove but do not have clamp holes which were perhaps placed at the top centres of the sides which have been restored. The inscription is an 18th century one and is: RVBRIA.PRIMA ALBANIESIS P.RVBRIVS.REV. ILIS AMICE.HAVE.ET VALE.EGO.HIC SITVS.SVM Rubria prima, from Albani, Publius Rubrius Revilis Friend, hail and farewell: I am placed here The inscription seems to have been copied in the 17th century from an old Roman inscription from a marble plaque in a columbarium. There is an unusual gap in the third line between REV and ILIS which may have down to a mistake made by the copyist. (the original Roman inscription read P RVBRIVS P L UTILIS). The formula of the last three lines is unusual for an incription in an ash chest. The decoration is of two moulded frames on the front, an outer one round the edge and an inner one enclosing the inscription. In both cases the mouldings are of a simple fascia and cyma. The sides also have simple moulding.