A Bacchus mosaic from Old Broad Street, London – “Excavating” in archives V

The mosaic from Broad Street, found in 1854, was taken to the Crystal Palace at Sydenham with a view to being restored and put on display, but subsequently disappeared (though an inventory of 1909 indicates that parts of it were still stored there at that date). Among the early accounts and illustrations of the mosaic is a series of drawings in the Wollaston collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, one of which is signed by H.S. Barton and dated to 1865; but more valuable are those made while the pavement was still in situ in 1854. In all of these the central rider seems to lack female breasts and the animal that carries him/her to have spots, so was presumably Bacchus. A manuscript note on a sketch of George Maw in the Shropshire archives provides evidence that the rider also held a wine-cup.