You are looking in a high quality collectible bronze vessel. It is based on the 'Mosaic of the Doves' that you can see in the Capitoline Museum in Rome. A mosaic from Hadrian's Villa, now in the Capitoline Museums, depicts a group of doves on a round bowl. As described by Pliny, one dove is drinking while the others are sunning themselves. The Doves of Pliny, or the Capitoline Doves depicts the doves artistically but realistically. It was discovered in 1737 during excavations at Hadrian's Villa led by Cardinal Giuseppe Alessandro Furietti, who thought it was the mosaic that Pliny had described, although other scholars think it is a copy of the original that was made for Hadrian. The Hadrian's villa mosaic has in turn been copied many times in many formats. All our bronze items, are cast in Greece, using the traditional 'lost wax' method. As nothing is mass-produced, there will inevitably be slight variations in patination and colouring. Each piece is, therefore, unique.(55-007-A)