While the single bird studies on the sides and base of this box were most probably based on engravings from one of the numerous books on ornithology published around this date, the composition on the lid possibly referred to Roman floor mosaics of the type found in the House of the Faun, Pompeii (VI, 12, 2), laid by an Alexandrian workshop in the second century BC, now in the collection of the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli. The mosaicist has used a range of differentshaped tesserae to create these remarkably naturalistic studies of ducks: the dark background is formed of regularly arranged cubes, while the water is suggested by different-coloured strips laid in parallel lines. The plumage is described by an array of regular- and irregular-shaped tesserae and the beady eyes are made of malmischiati tesserae.

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