DAVID AARON
“Goodbyes are only for those who love with their eyes. Because for those who love with heart and soul there is no such thing as separation”
This publication is dedicated to Dr Kathrin Lindner, someone more family than friend.
A remarkable and inspirational human with tremendous passion, love, intellect, care and humour. She was the type of person who would do everything and anything for her family, friends and those less fortunate. Her character, strength and principles were unshakeable. It is impossible to put into words how much she was loved and how much she will be missed. We are eternally grateful to have known her, and for all the wonderful memories we were lucky enough to have with her.
The world is far poorer without her, but her beautiful spirit will survive for eternity. Our thoughts are with Andreas, Marc and Natalie.
DAVID AARON
london | 2024
All items in this catalogue have been checked against the Art Loss Register and Interpol Database.
CONTENTS
6
MODEL OF A BOAT
Middle Kingdom, Dynasty XI–XII, 2087–1759 b.c., Egypt
12
USHABTI FOR TA-MIAT
Second Intermediate Period–Early 18th Dynasty, 1630–1540 b.c., Egypt
16
USHABTI FOR UDJARENES
Late 25th–early 26th Dynasty, Thebes, Late Dynastic Period, c.670–650 b.c., Egypt
20
LARGE BRONZE FIGURE OF OSIRIS
Circa 664–332 b.c., Late Period, Egypt
26
BUST OF AMENHOTEP III, RE-EMPLOYED BY RAMSES II 1540–1190 b.c., 18th–19th Dynasty, Egypt
32
GREYWACKE SERAPIS
Circa 1st–2nd Century a.d., Roman
38
BRONZE SIREN
Circa 5th century b.c., Archaic Period
42
GRIFFIN PROTOME
Circa 7th Century b.c., Greek
46
CORSICAN BRONZE HOARD
Circa 900 b.c., Late Bronze Age, Corsica
50
THE ALBRIGHT-KNOX SARDINIAN WARRIOR
Circa 7th–6th century b.c., Sardinia
56
MONUMENTAL TORSO OF A CYCLADIC IDOL, POSSIBLY BY THE COPENHAGEN MASTER
2500–2000 b.c., Bronze Age, Greece
62
OVER-LIFESIZED TORSO OF MERCURY
Circa 2nd Century a.d., Roman
68
TORSO OF A YOUTH
1st–2nd century a.d., Roman
72
HEAD OF HERCULES
1st–2nd century a.d., Roman
76
HEAD OF HADRIAN
120–130 a.d., Roman
82
EPITAPH FOR QUIRINIA FELICIA
1st Half of the 1st Century a.d., Roman
86
ASSYRIAN RELIEF PANEL
Circa 669–631 b.c., Reign of Ashurbanipal, Ninevah
92
MONUMENTAL AMLASH IDOL
Circa 9th–8th Century b.c., Iran
96
THE ‘ STOCLET ’ CAUCASIAN PLAQUE
Circa 1st–2nd Century a.d., Caucasian
100
KHORASAN TRAY WITH ELEPHANTS
12th–13th Century, Khorasan, Iran
104
MAMLUK CANDLESTICK
Circa 1320–1360, Egyptian or Syrian
108
CALLIGRAPHIC FRAGMENT FROM THE ALHAMBRA
Second half 14th century, Spain
112
PAIR OF FATIMID KILGAS
12th Century, Egypt, Cairo, Fatimid
116
MAMLUK PILGRIM FLASK
Mid-13th to mid-14th Century, Near East or Egypt
122
IBEX FRIEZE
3rd Century b.c.–1st Century a.d., Qataban
126
HEAD OF A WOMAN
3rd century b.c.–1st century a.d., Yemen
130
BULL STELE
3rd century b.c.–1st century a.d., Qataban
134
BYZANTINE MOSAIC PANEL
Circa late 4th Century a.d., possibly near Antioch
138
BYZANTINE MOSAIC PANEL
Circa Early 5th Century a.d., possibly Antioch or Apamene
142
FRAGMENT OF GENESIS FROM A VERY EARLY HEBREW BIBLE
Circa 9th–10th Century
148
EXTRAORDINARY GREEN RIVER TURTLE
Axestemys byssinus. Early Eocene (50 million years)
152
PACHYCEPHALOSAURUS SKULL ‘P. WYOMINGENSIS’
Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous Period (68–66 million years ago)
156
JUVENILE TYRANNOSAURUS REX SKELETON
Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous Period (68–66 million years ago)
MODEL OF A BOAT
Middle Kingdom, Dynasty XI–XII, 2087–1759 b.c., Egypt
Wood, l : 79.5 cm
exhibited
Museum of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, 1984–1987
published
The Herald, Australia, Tuesday 26 July 1949, p. 7.
Ancient Glass; also Roman, Greek and Egyptian Antiquities, Leonard Joel Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, 29 July 1949, Lot 26.
Colin A. Hope and Ron Miller, ‘Life and Death in Ancient Egypt: Tjeby, an Egyptian Mummy in the Museum of Victoria’ (Melbourne, 1984), pp. 10-11. Antiquities, Christie’s, London, 13 October 2008, Lot 69.
MINERVA, 20:2, March-April 2009, p. 43.
David Aaron, 2021, No.17.
provenance
Sold at: Ancient Glass; also Roman, Greek and Egyptian Antiquities, Leonard Joel Pty. Ltd., Melbourne, 29 July 1949, lot 26.
Dannett Collection, Melbourne, Australia acquired from the above sale. Acquired by descent to Simon Walters and Pamela Turnbull from the above.
Sold at: Antiquities, Christie’s, London, 13 October 2008, Lot 69.
Private Collection of Sheikh Saud al Thani (1966-2014), acquired from the above sale. Thence by descent.
With David Aaron Ltd, acquired from the above 19th May 2018. Private Collection, France, acquired from the above 11th April 2020. Accompanied by French cultural passport, number 242494
ALR: S00139170, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
Overall in very good condition with natural weathering, flaking and chips present. Some areas of repair including top of mast, and to parts of some of the figures. A more complete and detailed description report available upon request.
The sailing boat manned by six crew seated in the prow, four sailors standing by the mast raising or lowering the linen sail, a seated bald-headed figure behind, and three standing sailors including the helmsman in the curved stern with rudder, four of the standing sailors wearing white painted chest bands, the deck painted with a red and white chequerboard design.
Boats were an essential part of life in ancient Egypt, whether for carrying supplies, or transporting troops, pilgrims or mourners up and down the Nile. They varied in design according to function; reed boats being used for light use such as hunting in the marshes and lakes, papyrus boats being connected with the gods and royalty and used for entertainment or religious events (such as carrying statues of gods in religious ceremonies and pilgrimages), and sturdier wooden boats for heavier use such as trading voyages across the Mediterranean, Red Sea and beyond. Essential and exotic commodities and livestock were all imported by river and sea traffic.
From Predynastic times, ships are depicted on rocks and pottery vessels, and continue to be represented in abundance throughout later periods on paintings, reliefs and models. The story of the Shipwrecked Sailor is one of the best-known tales in Egyptian literature; written during the Middle Kingdom around 2000 B.C., it is the original castaway story, telling of a fantastic journey into the Indian Ocean to the mythical land of Punt, a shipwreck on an island of enchantment, and encounters with a giant serpent, rounded off by rescue and salvation.
Egyptian tombs often contained representations of activities and daily life, the images and models fulfilling a magic and religious function and assuring the continuation of such activities for the benefit of the deceased in the afterlife. The Pilgrimage to Abydos, the resting place and cult centre of Osiris, which every
Egyptian hoped to perform during his life or in the afterlife, was made by boat; to arrive in Abydos was to share in the death and resurrection of the god, a belief particularly important in the Middle Kingdom. Just
Model (top centre) reproduced in The Herald, Australia, 26 July 1949. 1949.
as the life of an ancient Egyptian was spent mainly on the Nile ("a man without a boat" being listed as one of the ills of life), so in death his spirit might travel in a boat upon the waters of the 'Godly West' or make the voyage to Abydos. To this end, model boats were placed in tombs during the Middle Kingdom (circa 2041-1750 B.C.), usually in pairs - one rigged with a sail as well as oars for sailing upriver (southward) with the prevailing wind from the Mediterranean, the other with oars alone for the journey downstream against the prevailing north wind.
The ancient Egyptians saw the blue sky as a celestial river and believed the gods, particulary the Sun god Ra, travelled by special barques across the
river of the sky by day (me'andjet-barque), and the waterways of the Underworld by night (mesektet barque). The model boats placed in tombs provided the souls of the deceased with a magical means of accompanying the Sun on its cyclical journey around the world.
Other examples of funerary wooden boats from Middle Kingdom tombs are to be found in the British Museum, Berlin, and Cairo, one of the finest being in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, cf. W. C. Hayes, The Scepter of Egypt, I, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1990, pp. 267-275, figs 175-179.
USHABTI FOR TA-MIAT
Second Intermediate Period–Early 18th Dynasty, 1630–1540 b.c., Egypt
Limestone, h : 25.3 cm
published
Antiques, Drouot Richelieu, 6-7 December 1995, cover and Lot 214 B. 12, RWAA, 2012, Lot 6. XXX, RWAA, 2017, Lot 20.
provenance
Previously in the Private Collection of Egyptologist Alexandre Varille (1909-1951), France, acquired prior to 1951. With RWAA, London, from 2011.
Private Collection, London, acquired from the above 5th October 2017.
ALR: S00213001, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
In excellent condition, with discolouration and encrustations to the surface as expected with age.
A limestone mummiform ushabti. The elongated face projects forwards above the body, lending it great prominence. The sharp features are detailed with deep lines. The interconnected eyebrows and nose are carved in high relief, framing the lower relief eyes with cosmetic lines. Both ears sit in front of the straight wig, which falls just below the length of the small false
beard under the chin. The arms are crossed over the chest, in the typical posture for ushabtis. A lotus bud is held in the proper left hand, while the hieroglyph ‘sa’ is held in the right. The sa was a protective symbol with power in both life and death. The ankh, symbol of life and revival in the afterlife, may have been a modified version of the ‘sa’.
The reverse of the ushabti is painted with two columns of hieratic text, to be read left to right, as a short form of Chapter VI of the Book of the Dead:
1) “O ye (lit. these) Shawabty of Ta-Miat, if I am counted, if Ta-Miat is counted in the Necropolis 2) in order to do work there, in order to convey sand of the East to the West, I will do (it)! Here am I! thus shall you (.k, masculine pronoun***) say.”
Ta-Miat is a feminine name, meaning ‘the she-cat’. Male pronouns and the masculine word ‘shawabty’ itself occur across funerary objects belonging to women – it was not until the 19th Dynasty that ushabtis attempted to differentiate according to sex, except in the occasional use of female pronouns. Egyptian rebirth was framed within the masculine; to be reborn, the deceased body must be shaped into the form of the god Osiris. Coffins identified the deceased with male gods, Osiris and Re, and presented largely androgynous forms. The false beard on this ushabti is in keeping with the Osirian transformation.
Varille worked on the Karnak-North temple with Robichon from 1940 to 1943. During this period, they met René Adolphe Schwaller de Lubicz and together they founded the ‘Luxor Group’ in 1943. In 1944, after being expelled from the Institut Français, Varille was taken on as an expert by the Service des Antiquités Orientales. In this capacity, he served as a technical advisor at excavations in Saqqara and Karnak, and continued researching with the Luxor Group. Varille’s interest in the Egyptian philosophy of symbols was the focus of these later excavations and their publications. He only returned to France for short periods, including to publish En Egypte with Robichon. In 1951, Varille presented his symbolic theory at the Academy of Sciences, in the midst of the Egyptologist’s dispute over historical vs symbolist approaches. He died shortly after in a car accident at the age of 42.
Many pieces from the Varille collection are now in the Louvre Museum, Paris.
note on the provenance
Alexandre Varille (1909-1951), born in Lyon in 1909, initially directed his studies towards Economics and Letters. Whilst attending the University of Lyon, he met Victor Loret, the Egyptology professor, and this connection sparked his interest in Egyptian philology and archaeology. After continuing his studies in Paris, Varille began working in Egypt in 1931 alongside Clément Robichon (1906-1999). The following year, he was made a member of the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, an appointment he maintained until 1943. In 1939, Varille participated in the excavation of the temple of Medamoud with Fernand Bisson de la Roque, and acquired the monumental doors of Ptolemy III and Ptolemy IV for the Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon. He then ran the site in Zaouiet el-Maïetin with Raymond Weill.
Alexandre Varille (1909–1951).
USHABTI FOR UDJARENES
Late 25th–early 26th Dynasty, Thebes, Late Dynastic Period, c.670–650 b c., Egypt
Serpentine, h : 18.5 cm
published
Catalogue of The Collection of Egyptian Antiquities formed by the late Colonel Evans of Merle, Slinfold, Sussex, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 30th June 1924, London, Lot 100, plate II. Antiquities, Christie’s, 15th April 2015, London, Lot 51. Egyptian Antiquities, Charles Ede Ltd, 2016, pp. 24-27.
provenance
Previously in the Private Collection of Colonel Evans of Merle (1828-1903), most likely acquired at some point between 1850-1900. Sold at: Catalogue of The Collection of Egyptian Antiquities formed by the late Colonel Evans of Merle, Slinfold, Sussex, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 30th June 1924, London, Lot 100.
Private Collection of Alton Edward Mills (1882-1970), La Tour-de-Peilz, Switzerland, from at least 1970.
Thence by descent.
Sold at: Antiquities, Christie’s, 15th April 2015, London, Lot 51. With Charles Ede Ltd, acquired from the above sale.
Private Collection, USA, acquired from the above 3rd November 2018.
ALR: S00229526, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
Chipping to the nose, right hand and feet. Mounted on old collection marble base.
A mummiform ushabti wearing a plain wig with extended lappets tucked behind large ears. The broad face has precisely carved details including cosmetic lines and eyebrows. Folded arms with hands protruding from the wrappings hold the usual agricultural implements of crook and flail, with a seed bag over the left shoulder. Seven lines of hieroglyphic text are inscribed on the body, dedicating the shabti to Mistress of the House, Udjarenes, and quoting Chapter Six of the Book of the Dead. Old inventory number ‘26’ on the base.
Udjarenes (or Wadjrenes) was the daughter of PiankhyHar and granddaughter of Piye (d. 714 BC), Kushite king and the founder of the 25th, or Nubian, Dynasty of Egypt. A Priestess of Hathor and Singer of Amun, Udjarenes held a highly elite position. Ten other ushabtis dedicated to Udjarenes are known, including two in the British Museum (EA68986 and EA24715), two in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, and one in the Berlin Museum (10663)( M L Bierbrier, 1993).
Udjarenes was the wife of Montuemhat (c. 700-650 BC), Fourth Prophet of Amun and Count of Thebes, in a politically advantageous match – Udjarenes’ uncle, the pharaoh Taharqo, made Monteumhat Governor of Upper Egypt. Following the Assyrian invasion of Egypt and the sack of Thebes in 663 BC, the city was virtually autonomous. In a shrewd political move during the ninth year of his reign, Montuemhat invited Nitocris, the daughter of Psammetichus I, to take the role of God’s Wife of Amun (the highest-ranking priestess of Amun). Montuemhat therefore allied himself with both the 25th and the Northern 26th Dynasty. Montuemhat’s tomb in El-Assasif (TT34) is one of the largest ever constructed in Egypt for a private person, and had some of the finest reliefs in archaising style of the Late Period. Although Udjarenes was one of three wives of Montuemhat, she was the only one mentioned in his tomb, where she was probably buried (B Porter and R L B Moss, 1973).
Several statues of Montuemhat exist in museums today, in which he is portrayed in the style of the pharaohs of the Old Kingdom.
note on the provenance
Lieutenant-Colonel John ‘Bashi’ Evans (b. 14 June 1828, d. 1903) was born to a family of prominent bankers and industrialists. During his service for the Crimean war, he learned Turkish and was given command of the Ottoman Bashi-Bazouks (lit ‘crazy heads’). Earning him the nickname ‘Bashi’ for his various daring missions with the group.
He continued his army career until 1861 when he retired from active service to work as a banker. He married Lucy Jane Martha Hamilton in 1865, and they lived in Horsham, Sussex, until his death in 1903. A memorial tablet in Darley Abbey eulogises Evans as ‘one of bravest soldiers of the great Queen’.
Egyptology was among Evans’ wide-ranging interests. The core of his collection was formed in the late 1850s and early 1860s, while he was stationed in Egypt. Evans frequently revisited Egypt between 1870 and 1900 and added substantially to his collection at these times.
Alton Edward Mills (b. 9th September 1883, d. 1970) travelled to Egypt at age 20 to work for the ‘Societé de Pressage et de Dépots’, an Egyptian company specialising in cotton production. Mills served as managing director of the Societé de Pressage until 1946, when he became Chairman of the Board until the outbreak of the Suez War in 1956.
Mills had a keen interest in Egyptology and assembled an extensive library on the topic. Between the World Wars, Mills gathered an important collection of ancient Egyptian objects, and of Chinese porcelain.
Lieutenant-Colonel Evans of Merle (1828–1903).
Alton Mills (1882–1970).
LARGE BRONZE FIGURE OF OSIRIS
Circa 664–332 b c., Late Period, Egypt
Bronze, h : 55 cm
provenance
Reputedly from the Great Temple of Osiris at Karnak, according to Blanchard’s Egyptian Museum Certificate of Antiquity and bronze plaque on stand. Blanchard’s Egyptian Museum, Cairo, from at least c. 1911.
In the Private Collection of Olive Farnworth and her mother, Graiseley Cottage, Wolverhampton, acquired from the above in c. 1911 and kept there until at least 1921, and later moved to Sainsfoins, Little Shelford, Cambridge, as recorded in her house inventory, dated 5th May 1921.
Thence by descent.
ALR: S00237433, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
The side plumes of the crown; head of the uraeus; false beard, and implements are missing. There are traces of copper inlay remaining in the eyebrows and cosmetic eye-line. Microstructural and compositional evidence demonstrate that the bronze was subject to pervasive long term corrosion under natural, albeit uncommon condition, likely in alkaline ground waters. The piece has been subject to electrolyte reduction treatment at some point historically. A full report by Dr John Twilley is available.
The figure has been attached to the wood base with a Blanchard’s Museum certificate of authenticity attached to the underside and a bronze plaque on the front, engraved ‘Osiris Temple Karnak, XXVI Dynasty’.
Inventory from Little Shelford, Cambridge, dated 5th May 1921
A bronze statuette of mummiform Osiris on a wooden base. The god wears the White Crown of Upper Egypt, with a central uraeus and chin strap, which would have originally attached to a false beard (now missing). The facial features are cast in fine detail, with slender eyebrows over recessed almond-shaped eyes with prominent cosmetic lines. The hands are crossed over the chest, and the lower ends of the crook and flail remain below the fists – originally these implements would have extended upwards towards the shoulders. Statuettes such as this were made in a range of sizes, and this is a notably large example. One of similar size is now in The Metropolitan Museum, New York (61.45).
As firstborn child of the earth god Geb and sky goddess Nut, Osiris was one of the oldest gods in the Egyptian pantheon. Myth positioned him as one of the first pharaohs of Egypt, who, along with his consort Isis, taught agriculture and crafts to mankind. After his death at the hands of his brother Seth and subsequent resurrection, Osiris ruled as Lord of the Underworld, god of reincarnation and judge of the dead. He is often depicted in mummified form, holding the royal implements of the crook and flail and wearing the White Crown in reflection of this role. By the first millennium B.C., statues and statuettes of Osiris were offered in temples in great numbers, reflecting his importance. Statues of Osiris have been found in sites identified as temples and shrines dedicated to the god, but others have been found as offerings in contexts which are less clear.
Large Bronze Osiris, sold at Christie’s, New York in 2008, price realised $422,500.
note on the provenance
Ralph Huntington Blanchard (b. 1875–d. 1936) was an American antiquities dealer in Cairo, Egypt. Born in Fulton, NY on 25 June 1875, he was the son of Seymour Bailey and Anna Louise Franklin. He came to Egypt in 1905 and worked in the American Consular Service until 1910. He later became a ‘top tier’ antiquities dealer with a formal licence to sell ancient artefacts, with his shop located next to the entrance of the famous old Shepheard’s Hotel. In addition to his stock, he had a large private collection of scarabs, some of which were published by Newberry, A Handbook of Egyptian Gods and Mummy-amulets (Cairo, 1909). His collection was dispersed after his death in 1936, with many being acquired by dealers Matouk and Michailides.
Blanchard’s Egyptian Museum, Cairo, c. 1911.
Original label found on the base of the bronze Osiris from ‘Blanchard’s Egyptian Museum, Cairo’.
BUST OF AMENHOTEP III, RE-EMPLOYED BY RAMSES II
1540–1190 b c, 18th–19th Dynasty, Egypt
Limestone, h : 36.7 cm; w : 48.3 cm
published
Günther Roeder, Hermopolis 1929-1939; Ausgrabungen der Deutschen Hermopolis-Expedition in Hermopolis, Ober-Ägypten, in Verbindung mit zahlreichen Mitarbeitern, 1959, pp. 11 and 257, pl. 43 f.
provenance
Most likely from Hermopolis.
Recorded in March 1930 by Günther Roeder (1881-1966) as being in the possession of a local dealer named Gelâl in the village of al-Idara, later published in his 1959 book.
Private Collection of Eleanor Rixson Cannon (1896-1985), New York, prior to c. 1976.
Private Collection of Frances Lown Crandall (1927-2015), New York, who was a close friend of Eleanor Cannon’s and received this head from the above as a gift in the early 1970s and certainly prior to c. 1976 (accompanied by a photograph of Frances’ son Christopher Crandall, aged 12, with the head in the background dated c. 1976 and a note, diary entry and photos of the statue from Richard Keresey of Sotheby’s dated August 1989). The head was kept at the family residence in Cherry Hill, NJ, until 1986 when it was moved to their new home in Brookfield, CT, before they moved again in 1994 to Princeton, NJ.
Thence by descent to her husband Maxson Crandall Jr. (1929-2016), 15th July 2015.
Thence by descent to their children Maxson Ray Crandall III, Brooks Christian Crandall and Christopher Carson Crandall, 19th December 2016, kept at the home of Christopher Crandall in West Milford, NJ. ALR: S00223332, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
Drilled through from top to bottom and across proper left shoulder and side of wig. Top of head carved flat. Beard fragmentary and front of neck gouged out. Vertical channel running continuously through nose and forehead. Proper left side of wig repaired, with remains of plaster fill along join. Surface weathered and /or abraded overall and with seemingly intentional damage to facial features. Comes with vintage concrete base roughly shaped to receive bottom of head.
1959.
Frances’ son Christopher Crandall, aged 12, with the head in the background. New Jersey, USA, dated c. 1976.
Monumental head of an Egyptian king, originally most likely Amenhotep III, 1390-1353 B.C., later re-cut and re-employed by Ramses II, 1279-1213 B.C. Wearing a broad beaded collar and striped nemes-headcloth with fragmentary queue behind. The uraeus and postiche missing, with the incised beard-strap lines still visible. A circular recess is cut into the top of the head, probably to hold the Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.
The hard cream-colored stone from which this head is carved was particularly favoured by Amenhotep III, however, the head bears evidence of modification. The carved vertical recess on the front of the head would have served to secure the addition of a nose, and the alteration and addition of an uraeus designated by Ramesside stylistic preference. The apparent addition of other royal accoutrements, perhaps streamers or additional cobras, is suggested by several narrow drilled recesses on the sides and back of the head. Another modification is the indication of recesses to indicate pierced ears, which did not appear in royal statuary until the time of Amenhotep III’s son, Akhenaten, and his successors. The drilled recesses at the corners of the lips visually assisted the transformation of what was originally a wider mouth to the smaller mouth preferred by King Ramses II.
Amenhotep III, father of Akhenaten and grandfather of Tutankhamun, presided over a rich and prosperous reign of almost thirty-nine years which saw a flowering of grand art and architecture, best exemplified by the two enormous statues of the king outside his mortuary temple Thebes, known since classical Greek times as the Colossi of Memnon.
note on the provenance
This head was first recorded in March 1930 by the German Egyptologist Günther Roeder (1881-1966), who was engaged in an archaeological dig at Hermopolis at the time. He writes in his 1959 publication on the excavation that the head was at the time in possession of a local dealer named Gelâl in the village of al-Idara, and having been undoubtedly found on the Tell (meaning hill, presumably the ancient site). It is one of a number of such objects that Roeder records as having been found by locals outside of the sanctioned dig. He describes how the inhabitants of the villages around the Tell found many such objects, and that good pieces were sold by them to museums and private collections.
The head is next recorded as being in the possession of Eleanor Rixson Cannon (1896-1985), in New York. She was an artist and collector who lived with her
Eleanor Rixson Cannon (1896-1985).
Photos from 1989.
husband, Victor Hamlin Cannon, in Canyon Ranch, Woodstock, NY. She was part of the artists colony there, and is recorded as having a work included in an 1923 exhibition, alongside that of George Bellows. In 1932 she funded the publication of a small edition of Reeves Brace’s story ‘Within Silence’. Her husband Victor studied mining and was at one time supervisor of gold mines in Siberia. He first married a Russian woman, Kapa Chesnokova, from whom he separated, and in January 1936 he met Eleanor on a boat coming from Finland, marrying her seven days later. They developed land and farmed Aberdeen Angus cattle on their 109 acres along the Hudson before Victor died in 1950. Eleanor is mentioned in several lists of donors to major museums, including MOMA.
She was a close personal friend of Frances Lown Crandall (1927-2015), a watercolour painting and interior designer who was the niece of Charles Lang Freer, from whom she inherited a great love of the arts. She studied at Cornell, graduating with a degree in Human Ecology/Design and Environmental Analysis (Interior Design). She worked as an interior designer all her life, whilst also being an accomplished watercolourist, and was active in numerous historical and philanthropic societies, as well as being a talented and passionate equestrian.
Eleanor gifted Frances the head sometime in the early 1970s, and it remained within the family, passing to her husband, Max, when she died in 2015, and then their three sons on his death in 2016.
GREYWACKE SERAPIS
Circa 1st–2nd Century a d., Roman Greywacke, h : 25.7 cm; w : 17.8 cm
provenance
With Panayotis Kyticas (fl. 1890-1924), Cairo, from at least 1923.
Previously in the Private Collection of Ernest Brummer (1891-1964), Paris and New York, purchased from the above in 1923, and possibly on consignment with him from the above, prior to 1921. (accompanied by 1921 photograph of the bust in Brummer’s store front in Paris, and records from 1952 listing acquisition information. Set in a wooden base by the maker Kichizô Inakagi (1876-1951)).
Thence by descent to his wife, Ella Laszlo Baché Brummer (1900-1999), New York until 1973, then Durham, North Carolina, from 1964 to 1999. Thence by descent to her nephew, Dr. John Laszlo (b. 1931), Atlanta, Georgia.
ALR: S00240878, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
Inspected under UV light and 10x loupe. Some chips and losses along edges and to hair. Encrustations in crevices and pitted areas. Generally smooth surface with some uneven patination. Overall in fine and attractive condition. Attached to stand. Height with stand 32.07 cm. Sticker on stand with handwritten inventory number ‘376’.
Detailed list and invoice of objects shipped Paris- NY, May 26, 1952. The bust is listed as no. 15.
Highlighted list of objects, bought in France for NY gallery, April 11, 1952. Photographs of the bust on 35 mm roll film, The
Brummer Gallery Records, Metropolitan Museum of New York.
A bust of the Graeco-Egyptian god Serapis, carved from dark greenish-grey stone. The god is depicted with his typical shoulder-length hair, falling in thick curls on either side of his face and parted in the centre. He also has a thick, curled beard and moustache. The face is carved smoothly and cleanly, with a long straight nose and deep set eyes below a prominent brow ridge. The god wears a loose fitting garment, with a cloak affixed with a round brooch on the proper right shoulder. At the reverse, the locks of hair are tightly moulded to the shape of the head, and flow over the shoulders and down the back in five distinct curled points. Below the hair a rough, uncarved surface angles down to meet the front of the bust, creating a gently curved silhouette when viewed from the side. The deep hole in the top of the head would most likely have held the attachment for a modius, one of Serapis’ key attributes.
This bust conforms to the standard iconography of Serapis, with thick moustache and beard, and attachment hole for a modius atop the head. According to Tacitus, the cult of this syncretistic deity was promoted in Egypt during the 3rd Century B.C. by the Ptolemaic pharaoh Ptolemy I Soter (r. 305304/282). This policy was designed to bring together the disparate elements of Greek and Egyptian worship, by highlighting the pre-existing deity who combined aspects of mortuary gods from Egypt, like the Apis bull and Osiris, with the chthonic figures of Hades and Persephone, and the hedonism and joy of Dionysus. Serapis continued to increase in popularity during the Roman Empire, even replacing Osiris as the consort of Isis outside some temples in Egypt. Serapis was also a god of fertility. He is often depicted with his head crowned by a modius or basket/grain-measure, a Greek symbol for the land of the dead.
The cult of Serapis was centred around the city of Alexandria. The grand Serapeum there is most commonly attributed to the reign of Ptolemy III
Euergetes (r. 246-222 B.C.), however, Welles makes a compelling argument that the temple was, in fact, founded by Alexander the Great (r. 336-323 B.C.) himself (Bradford Welles, 1962). Ancient historians record that, when founding Alexandria, Alexander sought out an oracle at the Ammonium to receive instructions as to where and under what divine protection he should found his city. Following this advice, Alexander visited the island of Pharos to seek out the god, and was guided by an eagle to the shrine of ‘Sarapis’. Here Sarapis himself appeared to Alexander in a dream, identifying himself by spelling out his name in numbers. The god assured Alexander that the city would perpetuate his name for all time, and worship him as a divinity. When he awoke, Alexander ordered the architect Parmenion to build a temple and a statue for Sarapis, and proceeded to conquer Egypt and beyond. Further evidence connects Alexander the Great with Serapis during his lifetime; for instance, Plutarch mentions the god and his cult three separate times in his biography of Alexander. Sarapis is also referenced as the god evoked by Alexander at his death. However, it is debated whether this ‘Sarapis’ is the same as the later Serapis or a different Babylonian deity. It is certain that some form of the god existed prior to the Ptolemaic period, and this god may have been the patron deity of the small fishing and trade port of Rhatokis, which became the site of Alexandria.
Whether or not Serapis was introduced to Alexandria during Alexander’s lifetime, the Ptolemaic promotion of the cult embodies the spirit of Alexander’s campaigns. Ptolemy I adopted Alexander’s work of blending the different cultures within Egypt, focusing on religion to promote a Hellenistic unity across the city. The prolonged popularity of the Serapis cult is a tribute to Alexander’s legacy: ‘In the city on the borders of Egypt which boasts Alexander of Macedon as its founder, Sarapis and Isis are worshipped with a reverence that is almost fanatical’ (Macrobius, 2013).
note on the provenance
Panayotis Kyticas (fl. 1890-1924) was one of the major dealers in Cairo. His original shop was located at Midan Kantaret el-Dikka, opposite Thomas Cook & Sons and Shepheard’s Hotel. In 1896, he relocated to the Halim Pasha Buildings on the same street, just south of the hotel. According to Egyptologist Valdemar Schmidt,
In his rather small shop one could often find interesting and important antiquities at appropriately high prices. Around closing time Cairo archaeologists tended to drop by Kytikas, where one could often find officials from the Egyptian Museum. Consequently Kytikas’ shop was a place to get good information about antiquities finds and discoveries all over Egypt. (Schmidt, 1925)
Flinders Petrie also describes Kyticas as ‘the principal dealer for fine things in Cairo’, and records that he sold many pieces to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (W. M. Flinders Petrie, 1931). He was also one of the main suppliers for the British Museum while E.A. Wallis Budge was Keeper of the Egyptian collection, with around 3,000 objects acquired through him. During one trip to Egypt in 1919, Budge even stayed in Kyticas’ home. Kyticas also acquired the grand collection of
predynastic flints owned by Captain C. S. Timmins in 1919. After Kyticas died in 1924, his son, Denis, took over running the business.
The bust is mounted in a wooden base stamped with the maker’s mark of renowned artisan and cabinet and stand maker Kichizô Inagaki (1876-1951).
Inagaki carried out several projects for Ernest Brummer between 1922 and 1925, as recorded in the letters and invoices shared between the two and now in the Brummer Digital Archives, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. This further supports the case that Brummer acquired this piece in the early 1920s.
Born in former Yugoslavia, Ernest Brummer (1891–1964) moved to Paris to study art history at the Sorbonne and the École du Louvre, where he studied with Salomon Reinach, who had recently been appointed director of the Musée des Antiquités Nationales. Later, with his brothers, Joseph (1883–1947) and Imre (1895–1928), he opened an antiquities shop.
Ernest remained in Paris after Joseph and Imre left for
Ernest Brummer (1891-1964).
Serapis in the window of the Brummer gallery, France, photo dated 1921.
the United States in 1914 at the beginning of the First World War. The gallery would remain at 3, boulevard Raspail until the early 1920s, when Ernest would relocate it to 36, rue de Miromesnil, after Ernest and Joseph had a falling out. After the war, Joseph opened a second shop at 203 bis, boulevard Saint Germain. The brothers were reconciled by 1924 and participated in a transatlantic partnership until Joseph's death in 1947. After joining the business in Paris, Ernest travelled extensively throughout Europe to acquire works of art for the gallery. The Brummers dealt initially in African tribal arts before branching out into ancient, medieval, contemporary French, and pre-Columbian art.
Ella Baché Brummer (1900-1999, née Laszlo) was a Jewish woman born in 1900 and raised in Hungary. She wanted to study medicine like her brother, Dr. Daniel Laszlo, but she was not allowed to attend medical school. Because of this, she studied at the University of Budapest and became the first woman to graduate as a pharmacist there at the age of 26. She pursued a career in pharmacy and went on to produce her own scientific skin-care products. After a brief and unhappy arranged
marriage to a Hungarian banker by the name of Bacher, she moved to Paris, where she worked as a consultant for a top skincare company. Following this, she founded her own company, Ella Baché and opened her own shop on rue de la Paix in 1936. A salon bearing her name still operates at this location today.
Around 1941, Ella was forced to flee the Nazi invasion of Paris. After her brother obtained her a visa, Ella left France for the United States, leaving Europe on the last ship out of Lisbon in 1942. Ella met Ernest Brummer the day after she arrived in America, at a dinner with her brother and his patient (Ernest). Ella and Ernest lived together for eight years in Manhattan before marrying. Ella established a new laboratory for her cosmetics company on 55th Street, and the couple split their time between New York and Europe, to allow Ernest to continue running the gallery, and Ella her shop at rue de la Paix. Apparently, their decision to marry was sparked by their time travelling – often on their long transatlantic sea voyages, Ernest would be invited to sit at the Captain’s table to dine, but Ella was not allowed to join him due to their marital status.
After Ernest’s death, Ella moved with his collection to a new home in Durham, North Carolina. After five years Ella decided to return to New York to resume running her business, but she left the collection in the Durham house. Prior to Ernest’s death, Ella took no part in the running of the gallery, but afterwards she took over the management of his collection, representing it to Brummer’s clients, museums, and other contacts. Brummer allowed staff from the Metropolitan Museum, New York, with whom all the Brummer brothers worked closely, to visit the collection for research. She also helped in the development of the ‘Medieval Art in Private Collection’ exhibition which ran between October 1968 and January 1969, loaning thirteen small objects under the name Mrs. Ernest Brummer. She also contributed to ‘The Secular Spirit: Life and Art at the End of the Middle Ages’ exhibition in 1975, and sponsored another in 1981. She continued to donate objects to the Met, including 48 pieces of French medieval stained glass in 1977. She also donated and sold objects to the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Brooklyn Museum, as well as numerous academic institutions, and private collectors.
Dr. John Laszlo (b. 1931) was born on 28 May 1931 in Cologne, Germany, son of Ella Brummer’s brother, Dr. Daniel Lazslo. He moved to New York with his parents on 21 September 1938, the date of ‘The Long Island Express’ hurricane. The storm prevented them from
docking at Ellis Island, and they had to be pulled by tugboats into New York harbour. Daniel Laszlo, who specialised in cardiovascular physiology, found a job in cancer research at Mount Sinai Hospital. Here he studied folate antagonists in mice, and found the derivative folic acid could produce reductions in breast cancer in mice. John would go in on the weekends and help to change the mice’s cages. When Babe Ruth was admitted to the hospital with symptoms of throat cancer, Dr. Laszlo’s boss suggested treating Ruth with the cancer drugs tested on the mice. Despite Laszlo’s ethical concerns, the treatment went ahead and Babe Ruth went into remission. Following this, Dr. Laszlo chose to leave the hospital, and was offered an opportunity to start a new programme at Montefiore Hospital in New York. Here he established the Neoplastic Disease Division.
Following in his father’s footsteps, John also studied to become a doctor. He joined the Acute Leukemia Service at the National Cancer Institute in 1956, at a time when a cure for childhood leukaemia seemed far beyond possibility. He worked as part of a team providing as much palliative care as possible as they researched a cure. Building on this experience, Laszlo went on to write the book The Cure of Childhood Leukemia: Into the Age of Miracles. Dr. Laszlo served for a time as national vice president for research in the American Cancer Society, and is now Professor emeritus at the Duke University Medical Center.
Maker’s seal of Inagaki.
Kichizô Inagaki (1876-1951).
7
BRONZE SIREN
Circa 5th century b.c., Archaic Period
Greek or Etruscan Bronze, h : 5.5 cm
provenance
Previously in the Private Collection of museum curator, publisher and director of the Presses Universitaires de France between 1934-1976 Mr Paul-Joseph Angoulvent (1899-1976), France, prior to 1976. Thence by descent, France (accompanied by French cultural passport 238899).
ALR: S00226288, with IADAA certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
In excellent condition, with vibrant green and blue encrusted acquired patination over large areas of the surface. With old collection label on the base of stand, reading ‘—27’.
Sirens were dangerous bird-like females who tempted sailors with their hauntingly beautiful song. In Homer’s Odyssey (XII, 39) Odysseus and his sailors were warned about the lethal consequences of succumbing to the music of the sirens. Odysseus had to be lashed to the mast of his ship, and his sailors filled their ears with beeswax in order to avoid the sirens’ allure.
After centuries of verbal story-telling in the region, the Homeric epics were written down around the end of the 8th century or the beginning of the 7th century B.C. And although no visual description was given by Homer, by the 7th century B.C., sirens were regularly depicted in art as human-headed birds, possibly influenced by the Ba -bird of Egyptian religion. In early Greek art, the sirens were generally represented as large birds with women's heads, bird feathers and scaly feet.
This beautifully modelled figure was possibly an attachment or terminal to a bronze vessel or mirror. Although the shaping and lack of attachment loops or flat surface plates suggest that this could also have been a stand-alone votive figure. With a placid face, upright body, slightly flaring incised wings and clawlike talons, this female siren has close comparables found in the metropolitan museum, New York (1996.42) and the British Museum (1865,0720.46), although both are lacking the definition and beauty of the present example.
note on the provenance
Paul-Joseph Angoulvent (b.1899-d.1976), was a museum curator and collector. It is known that he attended the Succession de M Enkiri sale at Drouot in 1937, where he made various purchases. There is an entry for ‘two bronze sirens’ in this sale, however there is no way to tell for certain that either are the example presented here.
Possibly from this 1937 sale as part of lot 220 “Deux sirènes. Un canard archaïque et un porc”, it is documented that P-J. Angoulvent acquired at least one other object from this auction.
GRIFFIN PROTOME
Circa 7th Century b c., Greek
Bronze, h : 12 cm
published
Antonio García y Bellido, Los hallazgos griegos de España (Madrid, 1936), pp. 22-23, pl. 1
Antonio García y Bellido, ‘La colonización phókaia en España des de los orígenes hasta la batalla de Alalíe (siglo VII-535)’, in Empúries: revista de món clàssic i antiguitat tardana (1940: 2), p. 55, pl. 1, fig. 2
Antonio García y Bellido, Archäologische Ausgrabungen und Forschungen in Spanien von 1930 bis 1940, in Archäologischer Anzeiger (Berlin, 1941: 1/2), p. 223
Antonio García y Bellido, Hispania Graeca (Instituto Espanol de Estudios Mediterraneos, Barcelona, 1948), p. 83, pl. 2
provenance
Private Collection, Madrid, by repute, acquired in Madrid in 1933.
Thence by descent.
Madrid art market, acquired from the above in 2022.
Private Collection of Mr. Carlos Piñel Sánchez, Zamora, acquired from the above in 2022.
Spanish art market, acquired from the above in 2022 (accompanied by Spanish export licence 2022/11956).
ALR: S00218751, With IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
Left ear missing, now restored, and tip of right ear missing, now restored. The surface is stable with an acquired green and brown patination across its entirety.
A Greek protome in the shape of a griffin, with a flanged base for attachment to the shoulder of a cauldron via the three rivets. The sinuous serpentine neck leads to the head of an eagle, with a wide-open beak and pointed tongue. The elliptical eyes are cut through for inlays. A round top knot rises from the crown of the head. The base of the remaining ear reveals that it followed the standard form of the ears seen in other griffin protomes: a long vertical outturned ear, which is frequently compared to that of a hare or a horse. Incised details of overlapping scales run the length of the neck. This protome evinces the Greek griffin, with its bird and serpent-like features, which differs from the Near Eastern leonine version of the creature.
Griffins featured in Greek art since the Aegean culture of the Bronze Age, but returned en masse in
the 7th and 8th centuries following the Geometric Age, in what became known as the Orientalising Period. Trade of goods and raw materials, such as tin, meant that Greek craftsmen were exposed to Near Eastern iconography, techniques, and materials, and adopted them into their own work. Artists looking to reintroduce figural forms into their work turned to countries like Assyria and Anatolia for inspiration. Some scholars have argued that griffin protomes were imported into Greece from the Near East, despite the lack of archaeological evidence to support this. Others have argued that the griffins were produced by eastern craftsmen living in Greece, and others that they were a solely Greek creation. Evidence suggests that griffin protomes were manufactured at Samos, Olympia, Etruria, and they have also been found in Athens, Argos, Ephesus and Rhodes.
This protome would have been part of a group of identical bronzes that would have been attached to the shoulder of a large, circular bronze cauldron supported by a bronze tripod. These cauldrons were costly objects, and were frequently dedicated to sanctuaries of gods and goddesses. In his Histories, Book 4, Chapter 152, Herodotus describes how the first Greek to land in Iberia, Kolaios, dedicated ‘a bronze vessel in the shape of an Argive crater; griffin heads projecting all around the rim’ to Hera on his return to Samos (c. 650 BC). It is possible that griffin protomes were thought to have apotropaic properties. According to myth, griffins lived far away in the north and east, building their nests near sources of gold which they guarded closely. They are also associated with good eagle demons who drove away evil eagle demons and thus protected people from illness and death. The use of griffin cauldrons as burial
urns may be tied to these beliefs.
note on the provenance
Antonio García y Bellido (1903-1972), Spanish archaeologist and art historian, suggested that this griffin protome may have been found in Andalusia. Along with other finds, such as a Rhodian oinochoe found in the province of Granada, a Corinthian helmet found in Huelva, a centaur from Rollos, and a bronze satyr from Llano de la Consolación, the griffin supports Herodotus’ record of relationships between Phocaean travellers and the Tartessian king Arganthonios (c. 670 – c. 550 BC). Because of its strategic position at the southernmost tip of Europe and its plentiful natural resources, ancient Andalusia served as an important intersection for trade for the Greeks, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, and Romans.
CORSICAN BRONZE HOARD DISCOVERED NEAR AJACCIO BETWEEN 1880
AND 1890
Circa 900 b.c., Late Bronze Age, Corsica Bronze, Varying Sizes
max. l : 27.8 cm, max. diam. : 7.7cm
published
R Forrer, ‘Un trésor de bronzes préhistoriques decouvert en Corse’, Bulletin de la Société préhistorique de France, 10, 1924, pp. 224-232.
provenance
Discovered c. 1880-90 near Ajaccio, Corsica. Private Collection of Mr Ducasse. Thence by descent to Jean Dimitri Ducasse (b. 1883), Sarrebourg. Thence by descent.
(accompanied by French cultural passport 237816)
ALR: S00228228, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
In excavated condition, all items have a naturally acquired green patina.
A collection of unique bronzes found together on the bed of the Gravona river in the French territorial collectivity of Corsica, during the construction of the Ajaccio-Bastia railway line, which first opened in 1888. This provides two possible precise locations for the find, at the two points where bridges were constructed for the line to cross the river: either in Carbuccia, 10 km north-east of Ajaccio, or at Bocognano, 10 km further in the same direction along the valley. This discovery was published in 1924, in an 8-page essay in the bulletin of the Société Préhistorique Française by Dr Robert
Forrer, the director of the Musée préhistorique et galloromain in Strasbourg.
Various reasons for the discovery of this group in one place have been suggested. It may have been part of a funerary hoard, or perhaps several burials along the banks of the Gravona, a trader’s wares, or even the hidden treasure of a warrior. Both potential discovery sites are in inland mountainous regions. Forrer posits that the bronzes were brought in from Sardinia, via Ajaccio and up the river, and were the property of a Sherden warrior.
However, recent research indicates that the Torrean civilisation in the south of Corsica – previously thought to have begun in the second millennium BCE when Sherden warriors landed on the island – was in fact an indigenous population. There is at least one confirmed example of the distinctive megalithic towers (torri) built by this civilisation in the Gravona valley, northeast of the capital. Therefore, these bronzes may have been produced near the discovery site.
The group contains: a dagger; a luniform bronze that may have been a belt-buckle; a pommel; a disc with a projecting spike, which may have been part of a horses harness or brooch; three bow fibula of various sizes; and three simple rings of differing sizes, possibly a form of proto-currency. The style of these objects suggests a burial date of around 900 BCE.
The dagger is in the style of swords of the late Bronze Age, featuring a leaf-shaped blade with a raised medial rib down its length. The blade and hilt appear to have been cast as one. The hilt joins the blade via a raised semi-circle and is adorned with five raised round rivets.
The crescent-shaped object features five similar rivets along the arc, and a pointed hook on the reverse. A short cross with rounded ends extends from the inner centre of the arc. The rivets and hook could have served as a means of affixing the bronze in place, suggesting that this object may have been a belt-buckle, or perhaps part of a scabbard or horse harness.
The circular disc features a large, rounded spike projecting from its centre, recalling the shields held by warriors in Nuragic bronze statues. Small holes are pierced around the circumference, four of which contain chain links, suggesting that this disc was previously part of a larger object. The disc may have been a phalera on a horse harness or perhaps the centrepiece of a brooch, as in a contemporaneous example in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2007.498.2).
The pommel takes the form of a hollow ovoid, pierced longitudinally with a hole about 1.3-1.4 cm in diameter, and with another very small hole through one side. This would allow a stick to be inserted through the pommel and held in place by a small nail, so that the pommel could be wielded as a part of a sceptre or other weapon. However, at only 69 g, it seems most likely that this pommel served a decorative, rather than a martial, function.
This collection contains three brooches, including one of remarkable size. The largest brooch is of the typical violin-bow form, with a long pin and spiral coil. The broad catch plate is adorned with raised points of hammered decoration, with a few horizontal lines incised on the bar connecting the plate to the spiral. The median-sized P-shaped brooch, now missing its pin, features an incised pattern of a cross across the arch. Three thin rings attached in a chain at the foot of the brooch suggest an additional ornament of some kind was originally affixed here. The smallest brooch curves towards a pronounced raised rib in the centre of the bow.
Each of the three rings in this find are formed from a single bronze rod, bent into its circular shape. The largest is made from a cylindrical rod, while the others are each formed from a rhomboid rod. It is unlikely that these would have been bracelets, as their diameters are too small. Forrer proposed that, due to their simple forms and the relationship between each of their weights (the weight of the smallest is about 2/3 of the second smallest, which is approximately 1/4 of the largest), these rings
may have been a form of currency, of the kind found in other Bronze Age settlements in Europe.
note on the provenance
Jean Dimitri Ducasse (b. 1883), resided in a sub-prefect of Sarrebourg in north-east France, he inherited this group from his father who lived in Corsica for several years.
THE ALBRIGHT-KNOX SARDINIAN WARRIOR
Circa 7th–6th century b.c., Sardinia Bronze, h : 16 cm
exhibited
Contemporary Art: Acquisitions 1962-1965, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, 30th September – 30th October 1966. ¿Kid Stuff?, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, 25th July – 6th September 1971.
Kunst und Kultur Sardiniens: vom Neolithikum bis zum Ende d. Nuraghenzeit, Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, 18th April -13th July 1980, then Museum für Vor- u. Frühgeschichte d. Staatlichen Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin in Berlin-Charlottenburg, 31st July – 14th September 1980.
published Art Quarterly, vol. 29. no. 1, 1966, p. 71.
Contemporary Art: Acquisitions 1962-1965, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, 30th September – 30th October 1966, pp. 28, 84.
Stephen A. Nash, with Katy Kline, Charlotta Kotik, and Emese Wood, Painting and Sculpture from Antiquity to 1942, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, New York, 1969, p.73, illus. Charlotte B. Johnson, Color and Shape, A-KAG, 1971, illus., pp. 11-12.
Kunst und Kultur Sardiniens: vom Neolithikum bis zum Ende d. Nuraghenzeit, Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe im Karlsruher Schloss vom 18. Apr.-13. Juli 1980, Museum für Vor- u. Frühgeschichte d. Staatlichen Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz Berlin in Berlin-Charlottenburg vom 31. Juli-14. Sept. 1980, no. 104.
Miriam S. Balmuth, "Sardinian Bronzetti in American Museums", Studi Sardi (1975-1977), Vol. 24, 145-52, passim, figs. 1 and 2.
provenance
Previously in a Private Collection, Germany, from at least 1960.
With Jacques O Matossian (1893-1963), Egypt, acquired from the above, until 1960. With Marguerite (1900-1977) and Paul Mallon (1884-1975), living at that time at Hotel Hassler, Rome, 1960 to 1965. Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA (inv. no. 65.22), acquired from the above 30th December 1965 with the George B. and Jenny R. Mathews Fund (includes a dated acquisition record).
ALR: S00218849, with IADAA certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database condition
Corroded as shown. Tips of horns and upper end of sword fragmentary. Cracks across proper left elbow and proper right forearm probably indicating repairs.
1969.
1980.
An exceptionally rare and important Sardinian bronze figure of a warrior. The highly stylized figure is depicted standing, holding a club resting on his shoulder in the right hand and a round shield with central boss in the left. The warrior wears leggings under a short kilt, a cuirass, ringed neck-guard, and crested helmet with fragmentary horns. The statue was produced in the Nouragian (from ‘nuraghe’, the type of ancient Bronze Age building found across the island), or Geometric, period of Sardinian art. This is one of very few of its type outside Sardinia.
Different types of Nuragic statuettes depicting human figures have been identified: the ‘tribal leaders’, the shepherds, the warriors, the archers, the worshipper(s), groups (mother and child, wrestlers, etc.). These are recognised as representing the higher classes of a hierarchical social structure – those with religious, political or militaristic responsibilities. This figure is of the warrior type. The statuette likely had a votive function; many similar figures have been discovered in the famous Nuragic sacred wells of the island.
Accompanied by a detailed condition report, inventory notes from the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, and a chemical analysis report carried out by Arthur Beale in 1975 when he was Acting Chief Conservator of the Fogg Art Museum, in preparation for the inclusion of the bronze in a publication by Dr. Miriam S. Balmuth (‘Sardinian Bronzetti in American Museums’, Studi Sardi (1975-1977), Vol. 24).
Photos taken by Albright-Knox Art Gallery, 1965 and undated.
Albright-Knox Art Gallery Inventory, undated.
Acquisition record, 1965. Albright-Knox Art Gallery Inventory record, 1993.
note on the provenance
Jacques O Matossian was born in Alexandria, Egypt, in 1893 to a family of well-established Armenian Catholic tobacco merchants. His father, Hovanhess Motassian, founded a tobacco workshop in 1882, and later merged this with his brother’s shop to form the family business. When Hovanhess died in 1927, his sons Jacques, Joseph, and Vincent took over the management of the company. They successfully merged with British American Tobacco in July 1927 under the umbrella of Eastern Company, without becoming a subsidiary of the larger company.
Jacques Matossian was known for his collection of Coptic textiles and Islamic art, which he displayed in his villa in Neroutsos street. He contributed to the formation of the Islamic collection in the Louvre and many objects from his collection are now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, from a series of bequests made between 1949 and 1959. He moved to Paris in his later years, and is buried there in the Cimetière de Passy.
Paul Mallon was born in Le Havre, France in 1884. As Mallon was not interested in his father’s shipping business, at a young age he began working for a family friend who imported coffee and other goods from Asia. In this role he developed a connoisseurly taste for coffee and experienced his first foray into collecting art. Mallon began working for the Orientalist Charles Vignier in his twenties, and quickly became known in the art world
Kids Stuff? Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Bufallo, New York, 25th July to 5th September 1971, featuring the Sardinian Warrior on the wall on the right.
for his keen interest in Chinese art. By 1926, Mallon had opened Le Lotus gallery on Rue de Cirque and hired a new secretary Marguerite (Margot) Nabaud Girod, who he married shortly after.
The Mallons had moved their residence and their gallery to the Rue Raynouarz near the Trocadero by around 1934, and Marguerite Mallon took over the running of the gallery. They sold works to many American museums, including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Freer Gallery of Art, Washington.
In 1946, the family (including Margot’s son Billy from her previous marriage) obtained permits to travel to Egypt. Here they developed an important relationship with Jacques Matossian. While the Mallons’ funds had been depleted during the Second World War, Matossian had both money and sources for objects. As the Mallons had clients eager to buy, this worked very well for both parties. Their son Billy also became involved in the art trade, travelling to places like Beirut and Tehran – first with Matossian, and then on his own.
The Albright-Knox Art Gallery (now the Buffalo AKG Art Museum) is the sixth oldest public art institution in the United States. It was founded in December 1862 as the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, who declared in their first public meeting that ‘Buffalo is to have a permanent Art Gallery at once’. However, it was not until the 20th century that the gallery was to find a permanent home.
John J Albright donated funds for the construction of the museum building next to Delaware Park in 1900, and the Albright Art Gallery opened on 31 May 1905 in the new Greek revival building designed by Edward B Green. The gallery was later renamed and reinvented after major donations from Seymour H Knox Jr. and his family, along with hundreds of other donors, facilitated the addition of a new wing designed by Gordon Bunshaft of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill of New York. The new addition opened in January 1962, and the museum became the Albright-Knox Art Gallery.
MONUMENTAL TORSO OF A CYCLADIC IDOL
POSSIBLY BY THE COPENHAGEN MASTER
2500–2000 b.c., Bronze Age, Greece Marble, h : 32 cm
provenance
Previously in the Private Collection of the Marquis de Chasseloup-Laubat, most likely acquired by one of the three main collectors: François de Chasseloup-Laubat (1754-1833), Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat (1805-1873), or Louis de Chasseloup-Laubat (1863-1954), prior to 1939 (photographed in the album of the family art collection, created between 1918 and 1939).
Thence by descent, France.
Accompanied by French cultural passport 246051
ALR: S00240643, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
Large fragment of a larger idol, with small chips to the surface as expected.
Photographs of the torso in the album of the Marquis de Chasseloup-Laubat art collection, created between 1918 and 1939.
A large torso, broken off at the base of the neck and the midriff, carved from marble with a beige patina. The broad, slightly angular shoulders taper towards a slim waist. The true left arm is folded across the body above the true right arm. Two widely spaced breasts are modelled above the hands and long, straight line representing the spine is carved vertically down the otherwise unadorned back. This probably falls into the Spedos group of Cycladic sculptures and is very close to those grouped by Pat Getz-Gentle as the works of the ‘Copenhagen Master’, she believes this artist came from the island of Naxos, and examples of works attributed to this master can be found in museums around the world.
The Cyclades are an archipelago of around 30 small islands, islets, and rocks formed from the exposed summits of two submerged mountain ridges in the Aegean Sea. In classical times the name Cyclades referred specifically to the islands thought to form a circle around the holy island of Delos, the birthplace of Artemis and Apollo (the modern name includes other islands that were previously grouped separately). The Cyclades took an important role in the culture of the Early Bronze Age civilisation of the Aegean Basin, as the islands form a natural stepping stone between Brete, mainland Greece, and Asia Minor. Much of the evidence we have for the Early Cycladic period comes from goods and objects that were found in tombs on the islands. Tombs contain a range of objects in different materials: tools and weapons of Melian obsidian and bronze; shell, stone, bone, bronze and silver jewellery; elaborately carved soapstone boxes. However, marble was clearly the preferred material for sculpting. The marble came mainly from the islands of Naxos and Keros, and some from Paros and Ios.
Figures of the so-called ‘canonical’ type were exclusively produced in the period known as Early Cycladic II, or Keros-Syros phase (c. 2700-2400/2300 B.C). Five
different categories of folded-arm figures have been identified, though there is a great deal of overlap between them. The Spedos variety (named after a cemetery on the island of Naxos) is the type produced and disseminated most widely, which seems to have covered the longest period of time. Studies of the consistent proportions of these figures have suggested that they were planned out with a compass to ensure compliance with the canonical form. The meaning and use of such figures remains uncertain, and may have changed across the five centuries in which they were produced. Some archaeologists have suggested that they were produced solely for funerary use, and may have fulfilled the same role as ushabtis in Egyptian graves (to perform work for the owner in the afterlife), as substitutes for human sacrifice, or as guides for the soul of the deceased. Others have suggested they had apotropaic qualities. Another theory is that they represent figures from Cycladic mythology, and even could have been images of the ‘Great Mother’ goddess. There is little evidence for this deity in Cycladic culture, however, and androgynous figures such as this, and some with male genitalia have also been excavated. Some figures were found broken and repaired prior to their placement in the tomb –this suggests that they were used prior to their burial, perhaps within a domestic shrine.
note on the provenance
François de Chasseloup-Laubat (1754-1833) was born at Saint-Sornin to a noble family, and joined the French engineers in 1774. When the Revolution broke out in 1781, he was still a subaltern, but was promoted to captain in 1791. His skills were recognised in the campaigns of 1792 and 1793, and he was promoted to chef de battaillon and then colonel in the following year. Chasseloup-Laubat was chief of engineers at the siege of Mainz in 1793, before being sent to Italy to work in the advance of Napoleon Bonaparte’s army. Due to his successes in Italy, he was made general of
division, and was chosen by Napoleon as engineer general in 1800. In the peacetime between 1801 and 1805, Chasseloup-Laubat worked to reconstruct the defences of northern Italy, including the great fortress of Alessandria on the Tanaro. Napoleon again called him to serve in the Grande Armée in the Polish Campaign in 1806-1807. Chasseloup-Laubat reconstructed many of the fortresses in Germany during Napoleon’s occupation of the region. In 1810 he was made a councillor of state. He retired after the 1812 Russian campaign, but did occasionally work in the inspection and construction of fortifications. Louis XVII made him a peer of France and a knight of St Louis, as well as a marquis. Chasseloup-Laubat spent his final years organising his collection of manuscripts, until his eyesight began to fail. He married AnneJulie Fresneau de La Gataudière, through whom he acquired the Château de la Gataudière at Marennes, Charente-Maritime.
Their youngest son, Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat (1805-1873) inherited the title of marquis after his elder brother, Justin, died in 1847. His godparents were Emperor Napoleon I and Empress Josephine. He was educated at Lycée Louis-le-Grand before becoming a civil servant. From 1828, he used his father’s connections to gain a position working for the Conseil d’État. Following the July Revolution of 1830, Chasseloup-Laubat became aide-de-camp of the commander of the National Guard, Marquis de La Fayette. He continued working at the Conseil d’État despite the regime change, and was even promoted. In 1836, he worked as an assistant to Jean-Jacques Baude, Royal commissary in Algeria, for whom he worked at Alger, Tunis, Bône, and Constantine. He returned to France after the failed siege of Constantine in November 1836, and was appointed a councillor at the Conseiller d’État in 1838. He also began his political career at this time, and was elected deputy of Charente-Inférieure (the department in which
the Château de la Gataudière was located), and was reelected in 1839, 1842, and 1846. He was also a member and later president of the Château de la Gataudière of the departmental council of the Charente-Inférieure.
Despite the Revolution of 1848, he was again elected as deputy for the department in 1849, and he voted with the Conservatives of the Party of Order during the Second Republic. He also served briefly as Minister of Marine under President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte. After the coup d’état of December 1851, he was appointed to the consultative commission replacing the Chambre des Députés, and reelected to the government in Charente-Inférieure. An enthusiastic supporter of the French imperial project, he campaigned for the restoration of the Empire, which was approved by referendum in November 1852. He
François de Chasseloup-Laubat.
was made a minister in 1859, and appointed a Senator of the Empire in 1862. He retained this position until the fall of the Empire in 1870, making him a key figure of French early colonial expansion. Chasseloup-Labat was Minister at the time of the French conquest of Vietnam, and threatened to resign if Napoleon III agreed to return captured territories in exchange for a French protectorate over the whole of the country. It was during his time in Vietnam that Chasseloup-
Labat began to collect objects of art and archaeology.
Along with his wife, Marie-Louise Pilié, he was a key figure in the elaborate social life of the Second Empire, during the period known as the fête impériale. On 13 February 1866, he hosted one of the most flamboyant receptions: a masquerade ball in which he dressed as a Venetian noble to receive his 3,000 guests (including the Emperor and the Empress) in the restored salons of the ministry on the Rue Royale. The reception continued until half past six in the morning, and featured a ‘Cortege of the Nations’, as a symbolic expressions of the host’s political stance and the country’s imperial aspirations.
In 1869, Chasseloup-Laubat was recalled to government, and worked on the constitutional changes to transform the country into a parliamentary monarchy. He was not, however, restored to his position in
Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat (1805–1873).
the new cabinet formed in 1870. The marquis was also President of the Société de géographie from 1864 until his death. He died in 1873 and is buried at the Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Their eldest son, Louis de Chasseloup-Laubat (18631954), 5th Marquis of Chasseloup-Laubat, was an engineer who specialised in ship design. He expanded the family collection during his travels across Asia, especially in Japan. He was also president of the French Fencing Federation, and co-wrote the rules for international fencing competition.
Louis’ son, François, inherited his father’s interest in travel and archaeology, becoming a recognised explorer. He travelled extensively across Asia, and was on the first journey to the centre of English Malaya, from which he brought back unpublished documents on the still unknown tribes of the Sakai. He spent several years in French Indochina and China, where
This piece was in the private Collection of Manuel de Posada y Garduño (1780-1846), priest and later Archbishop of Mexico from 1839-1846. It was acquired by Prosper de Chasseloup-Laubat (1805-1873) in the 1860s and kept in his collection. Passed down the family by descent until 1947 when it was acquired by the renowned Guennol Collection of Alastair B. Martin. It was consigned on long-term loan to the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, and remained on view until 2014. Now with Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas, acquired from the above in 2023.
he compared archaeological finds with those of his friend, Father Theillard de Chardin. He also travelled to Japan and Korea.
His sister Magdeleine and her husband Achille, Prince Murat, also contributed to the collection, during their world-tour through America and Asia in 1926 and 1927.
Louis de Chasseloup-Laubat (1863–1954).
Standing Figure Holding a Were-Jaguar Baby, C. 900-300 B.C., Olmec Culture, Mexico, Middle Preclassic Period, Jade, H: 21.59 cm
OVER-LIFESIZED TORSO OF MERCURY
Circa 2nd Century a.d., Roman Marble, l : 104.7 cm
exhibited
Cantor Arts Center, Stanford University, Stanford, 2002-2022 (Loan no. L.93.21.2002).
published
Fairy-Tale Palace in Spain, Listing no. 451732, Previews Inc., New York, 1985 brochure. Sotheby’s, 1998 brochure.
provenance
With Douglas Fisher (1917-2006), London and Marbella, acquired 1950s-1960s. Private Collection, West Coast, USA, acquired from the above in 1978, accompanied by 1980 photographs and 1993 Christie’s appraisal.
ALR: S00240281, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
Intact as preserved. With some losses and associated cracks to the left buttock, as visible in the illustration. With some minor losses to the drapery. With overall minor surface wear, abrasions, chips and incrustation throughout. Some small areas of iron staining near navel, to the proper-right side and proper-right buttock.
A small amount of modern white paint to the brooch and to the drapery near the figure’s back.
Christie's appraisal, 1993.
Photograph of the torso taken in 1980
The torso on display in the ‘Salona’. Fairy-Tale Palace in Spain Listing by Previews Inc., 1985.
Torso pictured in Sotheby’s 1998 brochure for the sale of the house.
An over-lifesize torso of the Roman god Mercury, carved from creamy white marble. He is depicted nude, except for a chlamys that is secured with a circular brooch at his right shoulder. The heavy drapes of the fabric fall across the muscular pectorals at the front, and in a large swoop over the back. The body is highly idealised, with emphasised muscles, a prominent Adonis belt, and smooth, rounded buttocks. The form exhibits the graceful proportions, modelling, and contrapposto introduced by the sculptor Polykleitos in the fourth century B.C.. The arch of the back and slight forward tilt of the torso creates a deep crease in the abdomen, dividing the well-articulated ribs and the lower musculature.
Mercury’s popularity began in the Roman Republic around the fourth century B.C., incorporating some of the attributes of the native Etruscan god Turms. Mercury served as the god of commerce, travellers, doctors, and merchants. He was also the messenger of the gods and the guide who took souls to the underworld. Because of his many roles, Mercury was depicted with a variety of attributes and poses. One similar to this sculpture is now in the Boboli Gardens in Florence, depicting an athletic Mercury with wings emerging from his head, holding a staff in his lowered left hand and the infant Dionysus in his right.
note on the provenance
This torso was on public display from 2002 until 2020 at the ‘Cantor Arts Centre’, an art museum on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, California, United States. The museum first opened in 1894 and consists of over 130,000 sq. ft of exhibition space, including sculpture gardens.
Torso on display at the Cantor Arts Centre, 2016.
TORSO OF A YOUTH
1st–2nd century a.d., Roman Marble, h : 82 cm
provenance
Previously in the Private collection of Franz Trau (1881-1931) Vienna, from circa 1900. Possibly acquired by descent as part of the family collection, both his grandfather, Carl Trau (1811-1887), and his father, Franz Trau Snr (1842-1905), collected artworks including antiquities during their lifetimes.
With Mr Van der Fecht, Spittelberg, Vienna from before 1960.
Private Collection of Dr Peter Wolf, Böcklinstraße, Vienna, old master’s dealer and specialist, since before 1960, originally acquired from the above.
London art market, acquired from the above 14th August 2017 (but kept in Vienna).
Austrian art market, acquired from the above 2nd October 2023 (accompanied by Austrian export license).
ALR: S00241523, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
Intact torso, the sculpture breaks below the knees and is missing arms and head. Chips and abrasions overall, with areas of discolouration and weathering. Drilled and mounted on a base.
The torso in Dr. Wolf’s apartment, circa 2017.
A marble statue of a youth in contrapposto position. The torso is idealised but has only softly suggested muscles, giving the impression of youth. The beginnings of the slender arms and legs further contribute to this impression, as does the languid pose which runs throughout the body.
Statues such as this draw their inspiration from those attributed to the fourth-century B.C. Athenian sculptor Praxiteles. Praxiteles was known for his languid,
youthful, and sensuous male figures. He deployed contrapposto posture, with one taut leg bearing the body’s weight and the other relaxed and bent at the knee. This produced a curve through the figure’s torso and a tilt to the hips and shoulders.
note on the provenance
With Franz Trau Junior (1881-1931), Mr Van der Fecht, and Prof Dr Peter Wolf (See Item 14, Head of Hercules).
HEAD OF HERCULES
1st–2nd century a.d., Roman Marble, h : 24 cm
provenance
Previously in the Private Collection of Franz Trau (1881-1931) Vienna, from circa 1900. Possibly acquired by descent as part of the family collection; both his grandfather, Carl Trau (1811-1887), and his father, Franz Trau Snr (1842-1905), collected artworks and antiquities during their lifetimes.
With Mr Van der Fecht, Spittelberg, Vienna from before 1960.
Private Collection of Dr Peter Wolf, Böcklinstraße, Vienna, old master’s dealer and specialist, since before 1960, originally acquired from the above.
London art market, acquired from the above 14 August 2017 (but kept in Vienna). Austrian art market, acquired from the above 2 October 2023 (accompanied by Austrian export license).
ALR: S00241521, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database
condition
Intact, with losses to the nose, eyes and chin. Generalised pitting and minor chips throughout. Calcified staining is present on the crown of the head, as expected with environmental exposure and age.
The head in Dr. Wolf’s apartment, circa 2017.
A marble head depicting the aged Hercules, with thick curly hair and beard. The almond-shaped eyes are deep set and heavy lidded, conveying an impression of tiredness. The slightly downturned mouth is framed by a thick moustache. A simple fillet binds the hair. This head is based on the Greek sculpture of Hercules carved by Lysippos in the fourth century B.C., known today from a third century A.D. copy that is in the National Museum in Naples. This image is known as the Farnese Hercules, or ‘Weary’ Hercules, as it shows the hero resting after the completion of his twelfth and final labour.
The original bronze Farnese Hercules was displayed in the Agora of Sicyon in the Peloponnese. The full figure shows the old and exhausted hero, barely able to stand and leaning on his club for support. He holds the apples of Hesperides, for which he had to take the place of the Titan Atlas in holding up the sky while he stole them for his eleventh labour. The original bronze has not survived, but it can be recognised in many Roman copies and adaptations. The sculpture is attributed to Lysippos based on the colossal version in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence, which has a Greek inscription reading ‘Lyssipos’ work’.
note on the provenance
Franz Trau Junior (1881-1931) was an avid collector of paintings and antiquities, with a special interest in Roman coins and classical archaeology. He was the grandson of French chemist, tea merchant and art collector (Japanese and Chinese ceramics, medieval art, prints and miniatures) Carl Trau (1811-1887) and son of Franz Trau Senior (1842-1905). Franz Snr was a renowned Viennese collector of classical antiquities who enjoyed both high social standing as a member of numerous committees, and as an expert in ancient art. The eclectic art collection amassed by the three generations of this family was sold off in various auctions by H. Cubasch (Vienna) and Brüder Egger (Vienna) in the 1890s/1900s and after Franz Jnrs death in the 1930s by Gilhofer & Ranschburg (Vienna) and Adolph Hess (Luzern).
Mr Van der Fecht was an antique dealer in Spittelberg, Vienna.
Dr Peter Wolf is an Austrian antiques dealer and specialist for Old Masters paintings. He is based in Vienna and has previously acted as the specialist consultant for Dorotheum auction house, Vienna.
Trau family protraits in Sammlung Franz Trau, 1935.
HEAD OF HADRIAN
120–130 a.d., Roman Marble, h : 35.6 cm; w : 25.4 cm; d : 25.4 cm
provenance
Previously in the Private Collection of Lucius Crowell, Jr. (1911-1988), Philadelphia, USA, brought back with him from Europe in the 1930s, prior to the outbreak of WWII. The head was kept on a pedestal by one of the entrances to his home in the 1950s, and Crowell painted a still life featuring the head in the 1970s, before moving it to the side of the house in a circular planter with some ivy. Accompanied by a photograph taken in June 1966.
Thence by descent to his son, Nicholas Crowell, Philadelphia, USA, and kept in the same house.
ALR: S00238969, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
In very good condition, with wear and erosion as expected from its extensive age and environmental exposure. Losses throughout and an encrusted calcification covers the piece creating a slightly gritty surface. The surface has been professionally conserved. A post hole has been drilled on the underside in antiquity and is not used as the support for the modern base.
Photograph of the head taken in 1966.
A Roman marble bust of the Emperor Hadrian (76-138). Although the head has been weathered with age, it is still clearly identifiable as Hadrian. It features his thick curls, combed forward towards the forehead, his closely cropped beard and thick moustache, as well as the distinctive fold across his ear lobes. The eyes sit under a strong brow and above the remains of the straight nose.
Hadrian reigned as emperor of Rome between 117 and 138 A.D.. He took over after the failure of Trajan’s final Parthian campaign and had to renounce many recently acquired territories in order to solidify the Empire’s borders. Because of this, he travelled almost constantly throughout the empire, and initiated an unparalleled building program across its width. As well as Hadrian’s Wall, marking the northern limit of Britannia, he rebuilt the Pantheon in Rome and constructed the Temple of Venus and Roma. He may have been responsible for the reconstruction of the Serapeum of Alexandria in Egypt. Hadrian held a strong admiration for Greece: he created a Panhellenic League of cities, and constructed the Temple of Zeus and the Arch of Hadrian in Athens in order to secure the loyalty of the Greek aristocracy.
A large number of portraits of Hadrian survive today, due to the length of his reign as well as his enduring popularity throughout the Roman Empire. As he came to power at the age of forty-one, Hadrian is depicted as a middle-aged man. He was the first emperor to wear a beard, starting a trend that would continue for several centuries. Some theorise that his beard served as a demonstration of his connection to the Roman legions, as young men on campaign in this period frequently wore beards. Most portraits of Hadrian fall into seven clearly recognised types, as outlined by Max Wegner. This example falls into either the second or third of Wegner’s types, which have several overlapping characteristics, dating it to the early Hadrianic period.
note on the provenance
Lucius Crowell, Jr. (1911-1998) was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1911, to a prominent family. He graduated the Lawrenceville School in New Jersey, and then attended Williams College, before studying at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Crowell continued his studies independently, with the American painters Franklin C. Watkins and Arthur B. Carles. He also studied at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, and the Academie Scandinave and the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris. He painted in a realist style, depicting the everyday world with a touch of romanticism. Crowell was known for his seemingly unstylised execution, and was praised for his ability to
Lucius Crowell, Jr. (1911–1998)
paint in the traditional style of the Dutch masters as well as more modern styles, akin to Corot.
Crowell travelled extensively throughout Europe, painting Morocco, Greece, and particularly Italy. During his travels, he collected and brought back antique Venetian furniture, fine art, and architectural elements.
His works were featured in exhibitions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum, the National Academy of Art in Washington, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and a one-man show at the Pennsylvania Academy of the
Fine Arts in 1954. He was a member of the Philadelphia Art Alliance, Artists Equity, the Peale Club, and the Williams Club of New York. He died at his home in Charlestown Township, near Pheonixville, PA, in 1988.
Today, Crowell’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Boston Museum of Fine Art, Lambert College, the Medical College of Pennsylvania, Temple University, University of Delaware, Columbus Gallery of Fine Art, and the Northfield Museum.
EPITAPH FOR QUIRINIA FELICIA
1st Half of the 1st Century a.d., Roman Marble, h : 12.7 cm; w : 17.3 cm
exhibited
Writing and Lettering in Antiquity, Folio Fine Art Ltd., London, 9-20 October 1970, no. 52.
published
Most likely in W. Atkinson, Ancient Sculpture at Lowther Castle (Penrith, c. 1879). Most likely in Adolf Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain (Cambridge, 1882), p. 497.
Guilelmus Henzen, Johannes Baptista de Rossi, Eugenius Bormann, Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum, vol. 6, part 4, fasc. 1, ed. Christianus Huelsen (Berlin, 1884), p. 2537, no. 25338.
Writing and Lettering in Antiquity, Folio Fine Art Ltd., London, 9-20 October 1970, no. 52. Sotheby’s, London, 29 June 1970, Lots 172-176.
Heikki Solin, ‘Analecta Epigraphica’, Arctos: Acta Philologica Fennica, XVI (1982), p. 202.
Alessandro Teatini, I Marmi Reksten e il Collezionismo Europeo di Antichità tra XVII e XIX Secolo (Rome, 2003), p. 128.
Adelina Ramundo, ‘Caratteri e trasformazioni del paesaggio urbano delle vigne intorno a S. Cesareo’, PhD thesis (Roma Tre University, Rome, 2012), p. 242. Epigraphic Database Roma, EDR129669. Trismegistos Database, no. 587590.
provenance
Reportedly found during excavations at the gardens of the Collegio Clementino, Rome, 1731-1733. Previously in the Private Collection of Francesco Ficoroni (1664-1747), Rome, circa 1733-1735.
Private Collection of William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough (1704-1793), Parkstead House, Roehampton.
Private Collection of William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale (1787-1872), Lowther Castle, Lowther, Penrith, acquired from the above, most likely between 1842 and 1872 and recorded in the c. 1879 catalogue Ancient Sculpture at Lowther Castle, by W. Atkinson. Most likely sold at: Egyptian, Western Asiatic, Greek, Etruscan and Roman Antiquities; Islamic Pottery and Metalwork; Tibetan Tankas and Indian Art; African, Oceanic, and Pre-Colombian Art, Sotheby’s, London, 29 June 1970, Lots 172-176.
With Folio Fine Art Ltd., London, from at least October 1970.
ALR: S00235748, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
Intact. Mounted in a rectangular wooden frame, with a sticker referring to the catalogue text and publication from 1970 on the reverse.
A rectangular marble slab carved with the Latin inscription ‘QVIRINIAE C(retr.) L / FELICLAE / OLLAM DAT / C VALERIVS PYLODAMVS’, which translates as ‘Gaius Valerius Pylodamus gave the burial urn to the freedwoman Quirinia Felicia’. This is a tablet to the memory of Quirinia Felicia, who had been born a slave and later freed by her owner.
The vast majority of surviving Roman inscriptions date from the imperial period – between the reign of the first emperor Augustus (27 B.C. – 14 A.D.) until the third century A.D.. Although it is impossible to estimate the number of surviving Roman inscriptions, it must run into the hundreds of thousands, with archaeologists continuing to uncover more. Epigraphic material such as this provides information about many different
aspects of the Roman world, including political, social, and economic features of people’s daily lives. Funerary monuments make up the largest group of Roman inscriptions. The specific details recorded about the deceased, often including their age, occupation, and life history, provides key insight into Roman society.
note on the provenance
Francesco Ficoroni (1664-1747) was an Italian archaeologist, connoisseur, and antiquarian in Rome who was closely involved with the antiquities trade. Ficoroni was born near Lugnano, in the commune of Valmontore, Latium. He performed a series of excavation along the Moroni vineyard along the Via Appia between 1705 and 1710. These revealed ninetytwo funerary chambers decorated with frescoes and
mosaics, which formed the basis of his 1736 publication La Bolla d'oro de fanciulli nobili Romani, e qualla de' libertine. Ficoroni’s work was supported by Cardinal Filippo Antonio Gualterio, who purchased many of the uncovered antiquities. Ficoroni later bought back some of these, while over two hundred others were purchased by Sir Hans Sloane and eventually went on, along with the rest of his collection, to form the basis of the British Museum collection. Ficoroni also excavated in Hadrian’s Villa, but his findings here were never fully published. The object now known as the Ficoroni Cista and held at the Museum of Villa Giulia in Rome is perhaps the most famous item to pass through his collection. A catalogue of Ficoroni’s collection of ancient Roman mercantile sealings stamped in lead was written by Conte Cesare Gaetani, as well as several other titles written by Ficoroni himself record his archaeological activities. He died in Rome in 1747.
William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough (17041793) was born in 1704, as the eldest surviving son of Brabazon Ponsonby, 2nd Lord Viscount Ducannon and his first wife, Sarah Margetson. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin, and in 1725 was returned to the Irish House of Commons for Newtownards, and for County Kilkenny from 1727 to 1758. From 1741 to 1746, Ponsonby also served as Chief Secretary for Ireland under his father-in-law, then lord Lieutenant of Ireland. He was appointed a Lord Commissioner of the Admiralty on 27 June 1946, a position that he held until 1756, when he was appointed Lord Commissioner of the Treasury. He also represented the British constituencies
of Derby (1742-1754), Saltash (1754-1756), and Harwick (1756-1758). Upon the death of his father in 1758, Ponsonby succeeded him in the House of Lords under the title Baron Ponsonby of Sysonby. On 2 June 1959, Ponsonby left the Treasury and was appointed joint Postmaster General of Great Britain, he resigned in 1762 but was reappointed in 1765, until his final resignation in 1766. Ponsonby was also involved with the Dublin and Galway Masonic Lodges, and was appointed as one of the Senior Grand Wardens of the Dublin Lodge in 1733.
In 1736, Ponsonby set out on what can be seen as his official Grand Tour. Although he left no personal record of his trip, the different stages of his tour can be extrapolated from other documentary sources. He first travelled to Italy, as was customary, and then expanded further into Greece and Turkey. It is likely that Ponsonby had made a similar trip earlier in life or was at least already widely known as a connoisseur and collector, as he had already been elected a Member of the Society of Dilettanti – a status reserved for those who had visited the antiquities of the Mediterranean. Ponsonby is also recorded to have joined John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, on his first voyage around Greece and Turkey in 1738-1739. These travels greatly influenced Ponsonby’s collecting habits and artistic tastes. Ponsonby became the key patron of Swiss painter, Jean-Étienne Liotard, whom he met on this voyage, and accumulated more than seventy-two of his works over his lifetime. Ponsonby returned to set up a permanent residence in England at the end of 1738.
Lowther Castle.
The sculpture gallery at Lowther Castle, circa 1892.
Ponsonby maintained his passion for antiquities throughout the rest of his life. Letters between Bessborough and his two agents for collecting antiquities begins in 1763; most of the records deal with well-known dealer Thomas Jenkins in Rome, and James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Clanbrassill, who was based in Paris for several years. Hamilton regarded Bessborough as having ‘more knowledge and taste than anybody’.1 He died on 11 March 1793. In the 1801 posthumous sale of Bessborough’s collection, he was described as ‘A Noble Earl, deceased (Not less distinguished for his exquisite Taste and Judgement in the Fine Arts, than for his Liberality in Collecting.)’.
William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale (1787-1872) was the eldest son of William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale, and Lady Augusta, daughter of John Fane, 9th Earl of Westmorland. He was educated at Harrow and Trinity College Cambridge and was a British Tory politician.
Lowther inherited the Lowther Estates upon his father’s death in 1844. Starting in 1842, and continuing throughout his lifetime, he gathered a grand collection of ancient artworks at Lowther Castle. The East and West Galleries of the castle were constructed in 1866 in order to house his growing collection, which included around 120 pieces of Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, and mostly Roman sculpture.2 His tastes were reflective of the ‘Golden Age of Classical Dilettantism’ that prevailed during the Victorian era. An 1877 publication described Lowther’s collection as including ‘In one part of the Gallery is a marvellously extensive and highly important assemblage of Roman inscribed stones—altars, monumental stones, inscriptions of cohorts, &c.—from the Roman wall and from the old stations in the three counties’.3 Michaelis also mentions that in the passage from the East Gallery to the Billiard Room are ‘One hundred and twenty-three Roman sepulchral inscriptions, from the Bessborough collection’, which were copied by Matz and himself for the Corpus Insccriptionum Latinarum 4 His passion for
antiquities truly continued until the day he died; on 4 March 1872, aged 84, he waited in his carriage outside a London auction house, while an agent bid on some lots of porcelain on his behalf. Lowther died later that day and, with no heirs of his own, the earldom and Lowther Castle passed to his nephew Henry. Items from Lowther’s collection are in important museums today, including the Getty Museum.
Lowther Castle was originally settled in 1150 by Dolfin de Lowther, a nobleman descended from Danelaw Viking conquerors. Situated in the historic county of Westmorland, now Cumbria, England, it remained with the same family for centuries. The current building was built for William Lowther, 1st Earl of Lonsdale between 1806 and 1814, by architect Robert Smirke –the new building elevated the site to the position of castle. Smirke was later behind many of the great civic buildings in London, including the British Museum. In its prime, it is said that the castle had a different room for each day of the year. With a grand art collection, the site was a celebrated landmark of the north.
1. Letter from Lord Clanbrassill to Lord Bessborough, dated 14 June 1763 (Bessborough Papers, File 57), quoted in R. Finnegan, ‘The Classical Taste of William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough (1704-93)’, Irish Architectural and Decorative Studies: The Journal of the Irish Georgian Society, VIII (2005), pp. 12-43.
2. Adolf Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain (1882), p. 488.
3. Llewellynn Jewitt and S.C. Hall, The Stately Homes of England (New York, 188?), pp. 303-304.
4. Michaelis, Ancient Marbles in Great Britain, p. 497.
William Lowther, 2nd Earl of Lonsdale (1787-1872) by William James Ward after James Ward, 1827.
William Ponsonby 2nd Earl of Bessborough by J.Singleton Copley, 1790.
17
ASSYRIAN RELIEF PANEL
Circa 669–631 b.c., Reign of Ashurbanipal, Ninevah Gypsum, h : 41.5 cm
published
Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Near Eastern Antiquities, Sotheby’s, London, 16 July 1962, Lot 20.
Ernst Weidner, Hellmut Brunner, Erich Winter and Wolfram Nagel, ‘Altorientalische Altertümer in Museen und Privatsammlungen’, Arcbiv für Orientforschung, University of Vienna, 20 (1963), p. 200, fig. 17a.
Jerome M. Eisenberg, Art of the Ancient World, I (December 1965), Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, no. 91.
R. D. Barnett, Sculptures from the North Palace of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh (668-627 B.C.), (Oxford, 1976), p. 44, pl. XXX.
Ancient Art from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, Christie’s, New York, 16 June 2020, Lot 9
provenance
Hormuzd Rassam (1826-1910), Mosul, excavated in the North Palace, Nineveh (modern Mosul, Iraq) between 1853-1855.
Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817-1894), dispatched from the above.
Private Collection of Sir William Gregory (1816-1892), Dublin and London, gifted from the above.
Thence by descent to his son, William Robert Gregory (1881-1918), Coole Park, County Gregory and London.
Thence by descent to his daughter, Catherine Kennedy (1913-1999), Loughananna House, County Cork.
Sold at: Greek, Roman, Egyptian, and Near Eastern Antiquities, Sotheby’s, London, 16 July 1962, Lot 20.
With K.J. Hewett (1919-1994), London, acquired from the above sale.
With Royal-Athena Galleries, New York, from at least 1965.
Private Collection of James (1913-1990) and Marilynn (1926-2019) Alsdorf, Chicago, acquired from the above in 1976.
Sold at: Ancient Art from the James and Marilynn Alsdorf Collection, Christie’s, New York, 16 June 2020, Lot 9.
Private Collection, London, acquired from the above sale.
ALR: S00240043, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
Intact as preserved. Surface wear and incrustation throughout. Some losses to part of the right arm of the front figure. A scratch near the top of the panel. Some chips to the edges. Some surface scratches.
A gypsum panel, carved in raised relief, depicting two women walking to the left through a grove of date palms. Both wear ankle-length garments with some fringe details delineated. The leftmost woman has her left hand raised, and holds the neck of a slender vessel in her right hand. The other figure holds a water skin over her left shoulder. The two figures were originally part of a procession of prisoners being deported from Babylonia to Assyria after Ashurbanipal’s victory over his older brother Shamash-shumu-ukin, King of Babylon, in 648 B.C.. The panel is thought to have once been part of the decorative scheme in Courtyard J of Ashurbanipal’s near North Palace, situated between the throne room and the King’s private quarters. Other panels from this relief are now in the Museo Barraco, Rome, and the Oriental Museum, Durham (R. D. Barnett, 1976). Similar scenes were also found in other parts of the North Place, including the throne room (part of which is now in the British Museum).
pleasure gardens and game parks.
Ashurbanipal is known as the last great king of the Assyrians, as he ruled during the period in which the empire had its greatest reach, stretching from western Iran to Egypt. The rapid military expansion of the empire led to a new interconnectedness throughout the Near East, facilitating a cross-cultural intersection of language, technology, goods, and people. The empire accumulated great wealth for the Assyrians, making Nineveh the largest and wealthiest city on earth at the time. Despite his might, Ashurbanipal presented himself as a scholar-king, and is often depicted with a stylus tucked into his belt, to emphasise his skills as a mathematician, scribe, and debater.
note on the provenance
Following his conquests in Babylonia and Elam in 646-644 B.C., Ashurbanipal built a new palace in the Assyrian capital city of Nineveh (modern Mosul, Iraq). The new structure, today called the North Palace, was known as bit riduti, the ‘House of Government’. The decorative schema across its walls depict scenes of Ashurbanipal’s military achievements, royal lion hunts, procession of captives, and the subjugation of Assyria’s neighbours. Nineveh was a grand city, featuring many large temples and palace complexes, as well as colossal sculptures, within an intricate system of canals and aqueducts that supplied water to
Captain Anthony Hormuzd Rassam (1826-1910) was born in Mosul, modern day Iraq, on the bank of the River Tigris opposite the ancient site of Nineveh. Educated in England, in 1869 he married Anne Eliza, the oldest daughter of Captain Spencer Cosby Price.
Rassam’s brother was British Vice-Consul in Mosul, which enabled him to gain work with the British excavations at Nineveh in 1845. At the age of twenty, he was hired by British archaeologist Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817-1894) as a paymaster at Nimrud. Layard was impressed by Rassam and took him under his wing, supporting his studies at Magdalen College, Oxford. In 1849, Rassam was instructed by the trustees of the British Museum to return to Nineveh with Layard in 1965.
order to assist him and ultimately succeed him on his second expedition to Iraq (1849-1851). The North Palace at Nineveh was discovered by Rassam in December 1853, whilst he was serving as agent for the British Museum.
Between 1877 and 1882, Rassam undertook four expeditions on behalf of the British Museum. As well as the discovery of the North Palace, Rassam unearth the cylinder of Ashurbanipal at Nineveh, and two of the bronze strips from the Balawat Gates. He also identified the location of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and excavated a palace of Nebuchadnezzar II at Borsippa. He discovered the Cyrus Cylinder at the site of Esagila in Babylon, and the temple of the sun at Sippar. From 1882, Rassam mainly lived in Brighton, and published books about Assyro-Babylonian exploration, the ancient Christian peoples of the Near Eastern, and contemporary religious controversies in England. After his death on 8 September 1910, a number of his personal effects were donated to the Hove Museum, and some went to the British Museum.
Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817-1894) was born to a mostly English family in Paris and raised in Italy, where he acquired a taste for fine arts and a love of travel from his father. Layard travelled around Asia
for many months, mainly in Persia, before returning to Constantinople in 1842. Here he met Sir Stratford Canning, the British Ambassador, who employed Layard in various unofficial diplomatic missions in European Turkey. In 1845, Layard began his excavations around Mosul, particularly at Kuyunkij and Nimrud. He returned to England in 1848, where he published Nineveh and its Remains (1848-1849), and the illustrated folio The Monuments of Nineveh. From Drawings Made on the Spot (1849). In August 1849, Layard embarked on a second archaeological expedition, which extended to the ruins of Babylon and the mounds of southern Mesopotamia, during which he is credited with the discovery of the Library of Ashurbanipal. Layard sent many specimens back to England, which now make up the majority of the Assyrian antiquities in the British Museum collection.
He served as Ambassador at Constantinople between 1877 and 1880, when he retired from public life. He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Bath in 1878.
Sir William Gregory (1816-1892) was born at the UnderSecretary’s residence, Ashtown Lodge, in Phoenix Park, Dublin in 1816. He attended Harrow school between
Sir Austen Henry Layard (1817–1894).
Hormuzd Rassam (1826–1910).
Sir William Gregory (1816–1892).
1830 and 1835, and entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1836, but left three year later without a degree. Gregory travelled to Egypt in 1855 and wrote a two-volume work on his travels. He was returned to Parliament for County Galway in 1857 on a liberal-conservative position. He travelled through North America in 1859, where he befriended several southern Congressman.
Gregory held a long interest in the arts, and was connected with the British Museum. In 1867 he was appointed a Trustee of the National Gallery. Although he inherited a large fortune from the earnings his grandfather made in the East India Company, Gregory lost a large amount of it on horse racing bets.
Their only child, William Robert Gregory (1881-1918), was born on 20 May 1881. He studied at Harrow, Oxford University, and the Slade School of Art. He married another Slade student, Margaret Parry, and worked in Paris at the design studio of Jacques Émile Blanche. He had his own exhibition of paintings in Chelsea in 1914, and also illustrated books and stages.
At the age of 34, with three children, Gregory joined the war effort as a fighter pilot, and was the first Irish pilot to achieve ace status in 40 Squadron RFC. In 1917 he was made a Chevalier of the Legion d’Honneur in France in 1917, and was awarded a Military Cross for ‘conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty’. He was killed in Italy at the age of 36, and his death became the subject of four poems by W. B. Yeats (In Memory of Major Robert Gregory, An Irish Airman Foresees His Death, Shepherd and Goatherd, and Reprisals).
K.J. Hewett (1919-1994) was born in Ealing, West London, and first worked as a bookseller. After the war he bought a small shop in Richmond, and soon after moved to Sydney Street off King’s Road. He became a dealer in ethnographic art and antiquities, and worked with dealers such as Sydney Bernard Burney (the first
dealer to exhibit modern art alongside ‘tribal’ art in London between the wars), who gave him items to sell. He also dealt with Peter Wilson, then chairman of Sotheby’s, and the dealer John Hunt. He and his wife were friends with the patrons and collectors Lisa and Robert Sainsbury, and Hewett helped them form their collection (now in the University of East Anglia).
Hewett is known as a major influence on collectors of antiquities and ‘tribal’ art between the 1950s and 1980s. He had a wide range of clients, including museums in the UK and the US . He also worked as an intermediary for J.J. Klejman to offer items to museums. Hewett sold a number of pieces from the Kingdom of Benin and played a key role in the dispersal of Augustus Henry Pitt-Rivers’ collection.
James and Marilynn Alsdorf were married in 1952 and spent their lifetime building an eclectic and famed art collection which spanned all cultures and periods.
Based mostly in Chicago, their collection was, as Christie’s Chairman of the Americas, Marc Porter, put it, ‘an example of cross-category collecting at its finest’. It encompassed antiquities, works on paper, European and Latin American art, and Indian and Southeast Asian art, as well as including some of the biggest names of modern and contemporary art, such as René Magritte, Frida Kahlo, Joan Miró and Jean Dubuffet.
William Robert Gregory (1881–1918). James and Marilynn Alsdorff, Miami, 1950.
MONUMENTAL AMLASH IDOL
Circa 9th–8th Century b.c., Iran
Terracotta, h : 44 cm; w : 12.5 cm
provenance
With Royal-Athena Gallery, New York, by at least 1963.
Private Collection of Mr. Robert Levinson, New York, acquired from the above on 8 November 1963 (accompanied original 1963 signed certificate of authenticity).
Thence by descent to his son, Andrew Levinson (b. 1958), New York, accompanied by notarised statement.
ALR: S00234678, S00236057, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
In excellent condition. With very minor chips throughout as expected with age. The surface is covered in an acquired calcified patination as expected from age and environmental circumstances. Accompanied by Thermoluminescence test by Ciram conducted in February 2023 confirming the date of manufacture.
A monumental terracotta idol in the form of a standing female figure with her arms crossed over her midriff. The figure is simplified and stylised, and the features connoting fertility are emphasised: the only modelled parts of the body are the two small breasts and the prominent buttocks and hips, and the pubic region is incised with a deep line. The circular face is similarly abstracted, defined by a large triangular nose and two eyes composed of three incised concentric circles. The pattern of three concentric circles is repeated on the belly button, on the reverse of the shoulders and at the top of each leg, just below the hips. The figure wears a tall tiered hat, with a long trailing plait that falls down the centre of the back.
The Amlash ceramics of Iron-Age Iran are named after a small modern town in the northern province of Gilan, just south of the Caspian Sea. Although the town is in close vicinity to Mesopotamia, the objects found there have a distinct local style, perhaps due to the natural boundaries of the Elburz and Zagaros mountain ranges. Amlash finds have been passing through the small market town and entering the antiquities market in Iran, Europe, and the US since the 1930s. Subsequently, the Iranian government organised excavations in nearby areas, including the 1961 excavation of the Marlik tomb site on the Sefid Rud with renowned Iranian archaeologist Ezat Negahban.
The ceramic vessels and statuettes of both humans and animals from this region are by far the most important source we have on the Amlash culture of this period. Much of what has survived seems to have held spiritual or ritual functions, for example, votive idols and libation vessels. Human representations are generally found in burial sites, and may therefore represent deities or specific individuals. In the 1979 catalogue of the Ancient Orient Museum, Tokyo, this figure was described as an ‘Earth Mother’ statuette. The exaggerated hips and buttocks of this figurine suggests it was associated with fertility and may have possessed a religious or apotropaic purpose in line with this.
This piece bears many of the hallmarks of Amlash style, and there a number of similar surviving pieces. One, published in 1977, possesses clearly similar rotund thighs and carefully positioned arms (P.Amiet, 1977). Also of terracotta, the circular incisions which mark the present piece are also seen here. Further comparison is offered by a steatopygous idol published in 1967 (R. Ghirshman, 1967). This idol features the tiered hat, arms held above the chest, and round face. The present idol is a well-preserved example of the distinctive Amlash style, and identifiably fits within an established type of that civilisation’s sculpture.
THE ‘ STOCLET ’ CAUCASIAN PLAQUE
Circa 1st–2nd Century a.d., Caucasian Bronze, l : 20.4 cm; h : 18.4 cm
exhibited
La Découverte de l'Asie. Hommage à René Grousset, Musée Cernuschi, Paris, 15th May – 31st July 1954.
published
La Découverte de l'Asie. Hommage à René Grousset, Musée Cernuschi, Paris, 15th May – 31st July 1954, no. 243, p. 60, pl. VIII. Georges A. Salles and Daisy Lion-Goldschmidt, Collection Adolphe Stoclet: choix d'oeuvres appartenant a Madame Feron-Stoclet (premiere partie) (Brussels, 1956), pp. 302-303.
provenance
Previously in the Private Collection of Adolphe Stoclet (1871-1949), Brussels, Belgium. Thence by descent to his daughter, Madame Raymonde Feron-Stoclet (1897-1963), Brussels, Belgium. Thence by descent.
ALR: S0023366, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
In excellent condition, with a dark green acquired patina over the entire surface. Minor loss to top right corner.
An extremely large bronze plaque, possibly from a belt clasp, featuring a central motif of a stylised stag turning its head away from a small dog or fox standing on its front leg. The stag’s neck and back are curved into an S-shape, with the neck bending backwards over the slender waist. Each of the stag’s legs is represented as an abstracted curve, as is the tail. High relief teardrops add a fur-like texture to the stag’s neck. The central scene is surrounded by a border of openwork spirals, followed by a row of pillars, and a final solid border of tightly wounded spirals. The four corners are indented, possibly to hold feet, which have been lost over time. This plaque is exceptional for its large size; other extant Caucasian buckles range between circa 4 cm to 14 cm in width, and circa 2 cm to 10 cm in height.
Bronzes such as this were produced in the Caucasus region, beginning in the late second millennium B.C. Highly stylised animals with small waists and arched necks and backs were the core motif of this style, and feature on a range of objects, including buckles, axes and pins. Examples have been found in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Northern Caucasus, dating from the beginning of the Late Bronze and Early Iron ages. Cast bronze belt clasps have been excavated
in the Republic of Georgia, and are one of the region’s distinct cultural outputs in the first few centuries A.D.. The openwork patterns may imitate thin plaques of gold and silver, which were decorated with twisted wire and filigree, and would have been nailed at the corners to wood and leather backings.
note on the provenance
Adolphe Stoclet (1871-1949) was born to a family of Belgian bankers in Saint-Gilles, Belgium, on 30th September 1871. He studied civil engineering at the Free University of Brussels, and worked for Italian and Austrian railway companies from 1894 onwards. After his return to Brussels in 1904, he took a job with the Compagnie Internationale de Chemins de Fer, and was promoted to chairman in 1927. Stoclet became one of the directors of the Société Générale de Belgique, one of the largest holding companies in Belgium at the time. Described by contemporaries as charming but slightly pompous, Stoclet’s large beard was seen as one of his defining features – it was compared to that of the Assyrian king Ashurbanipal.
Stoclet’s wife, Suzanne, was the daughter of the art critic, historian, collector, and dealer Arthur Stevens (1825-1909) and the niece of painter Alfred Stevens
British Museum, London.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
(1823-1906). Through these relations, the Stoclets formed connections with avant-garde art circles in Paris. The couple entertained European royalty, as well as historians, archaeologists, writers, and musicians.
The Stoclets met architect Josef Hoffman (1870-1956), leading figure of the Vienna Succession Movement and one of the founders of the Wiener Werkstätte, while in Vienna overseeing the construction of a railroad. The couple had been on a stroll through the city, viewing the architecture, when they happened upon a villa on the Hohe Warte, where Hoffman had built a colony of modernist houses for artists and the supporters of the Vienna Succession Movement. They shortly commissioned him to design a grand mansion in Brussels in 1905. Despite complications in the design and huge funding requirements, they persisted with building what is now considered one of the great examples of Vienna Secession architecture. Hoffman tasked the best designers working at the Wiener Werkstätte with the project, including Koloman Moser, Carl Otto Czeschka, Ludwig Heinrich Jungnickel, and Emilie Schleiss-Simandl. Notable artists, such as Gustav Klimt, Richard Luksh, Georges Minne, Franz Metzner, and Fernard Khnopff were charged with the
interior decoration. The mosaic frieze in the dining room was the last monumental piece produced by Klimt before his death in 1918. The palace’s protomodernist appearance and unity of style aligned with Richard Wagner’s concept of Gesamtkunstwerk, even down to the smallest details of doorknobs and cutlery. According to art historian Edmond de Bruyn, ‘It was self evident that the floral decoration of the house –always kept in one colour tone – and the neckties of Monsieur Stoclet matched Madame’s dress.’ (De Bruyn, 1918). The family was able to move into Stoclet Palace in 1911, though the furnishings were not yet complete.
The collection stored in the palace was eclectic and encyclopaedic, featuring art from ancient China, Cambodia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, pre-Columbian Mexico, and tribal Africa, alongside late medieval Italian painting, metalwork, enamels, and relics. The Stoclets resided in the palace until 1949, when Adolphe died on 3rd November, and Suzanne followed a fortnight later. Their art collection was divided between their three children, René (b. 1902), Jacques (b. 1903), and Raymonde (18971963). Stoclet Palace, now listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and a Belgian landmark since 1976, is still occupied by their heirs today.
Adolphe (1871-1949) and Suzanne Stoclet (1825-1909).
KHORASAN TRAY WITH ELEPHANTS
12th–13th Century, Khorasan, Iran
Bronze, h : 8.7 cm; w : 18 cm
exhibited
International Exhibition of Persian Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 7th January – 7th March 1931.
published
International Exhibition of Persian Art, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 7th January – 7th March 1931, no. 74D. Georges A. Salles and Daisy Lion-Goldschmidt, Collection Adolphe Stoclet: choix d'oeuvres appartenant a Madame Feron-Stoclet (premiere partie) (Brussels, 1956), pp. 284-285.
provenance
Reportedly found at Hamadan, Iran.
Previously in the Private Collection of Adolphe Stoclet (1871-1949), Brussels, Belgium, from at least 1931. Thence by descent to his daughter, Madame Raymonde Feron-Stoclet (1897-1963), Brussels, Belgium. Thence by descent.
ALR: S00233607, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
In excellent condition, with an acquired green patina to the majority of the surface.
A shallow bronze dish with a wide base and walls that taper towards a wide everted rim. The interior is incised with a central geometric motif bordered by a wide band of calligraphy. The rim and walls of the vessels are also incised with stylised ornaments, circular shields, and votive inscriptions. The dish stands on three feet in the form of elephants with riders.
Towards the middle of the twelfth century, Iranian metalwork underwent a major transformation. Bronze and brass objects, sometimes imitating forms in precious metal objects, began to be inlaid with silver and gold,
while hammered brass began to replace cast brass in the production of luxury metalware. Khorasan was the centre of production for these kinds of wares, specifically in cities such as Herat and Nishapur. The layout and intricacy of the decoration on this dish is typical of Khorasanian metalwork of the medieval period.
note on the provenance
Previously in the Private Collection of Adolphe Stoclet (1871-1949), for more information see item 22 ‘Openwork Stag Plaque’.
MAMLUK CANDLESTICK
Circa 1320–1360, Egyptian or Syrian Brass, silver inlay, h : 22.2 cm; diam : 16.8 cm
provenance
Previously in the Private Collection of Andreas Nomikos (1917-1999), Alexandria, Athens, and England, then New York from the 1950s, from at least 1983.
Private Collection of William Rankin Crowder, Jr. (1947-2021) and his husband, Joseph Hoesl, North Carolina, received from the above as a gift in the late 1970s or early 1980s, prior to 1983 (accompanied by a photograph dated 26 February 1988).
Thence by descent to his brother, Gene W. Crowder, North Carolina.
ALR: S00240449, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
Some rubbing and denting to surfaces (most notably at drip terrace); base rim with soldered repair, and crescent-shape area of loss; most silver decoration is missing, but XRF testing silver in minute amounts.
Photograph showing the candlestick in the home of Crowder and Hoesle, 1988.
A brass candlestick with a wide drum base that widens towards the foot, and is topped with a disc drip terrace. The base is inscribed in Arabic tuluth calligraphy honouring either Mamluk Sultan al-Malik al-Nasir Muhammad ibn Qalawun (1293-1341), or his son, Sultan an-Nasir Hasan (1334-1361). The two large radial roundels on the base translate as, ‘Glory to our Master the Sultan, al-Malik al-Nasir, wise, diligent and just, who exerts himself [in time of war], who stands ready [to protect the realm], …’. The bold calligraphy stretching the height of the base between the roundels translates as, ‘Glory to our Master the Sultan, alMalik al-Nasir, the Wise …’. Both inscriptions are acclamations of the reigning Sultan’s authority to rule.
The tapering cylindrical neck, and socket with a flared nozzle and integral lower bobeche, are decorated with bands of foliate arabesques, flying bird motifs, pointed palmettes, and six-petalled rosettes; all of which are recognizable emblems of the Qalawunid dynasty.
The shape of this candlestick, with a broad base and single central holder, originates from the metalworking traditions of twelfth-century Iran and Iraq. Prior to the introduction of inlaid designs in the twelfth century, there is only evidence of candlestick being produced from precious metals like gold and silver. Wax was expensive and wax candles, which were often elaborately decorated with coloured paper and gilding,
were even more so. Brass and bronze candlesticks only became popular after the fashion for inlaid silver and gold decoration arose.
Mamluk candlestick were likely used in religious ceremonies, weddings, and other celebrations, where they would have been seen by many members of the court. The endowment deeds of mosques and mausolea often specify how many candles should be provided and how often they were to be lit. Candlesticks may also have been given as gifts to members of the court and military officials – candlesticks intended for domestic settings were often decorated with imagery that reflected courtly life, such as processions.
note on the provenance
Andreas Nomikos (1917-1999) was born in Alexandria in 1917. He studied Law and Political Sciences at the University of Athens, and also took painting lessons under Greek artist Georges Gounaropoulos. Nomikos continued his study of painting at the Slade School of Fine Art in London. At the outbreak of the Second World War, he returned to Greece to enlist, and served in the Greek Resistance. In 1944 he escaped from occupied Greece to serve in the Greek forces in the Middle East and Italy. He began his career as a set designer at Karolos Koun’s Art Theatre, and went on to work as a set and costume designer with theatre companies and
institutions around the world. Over the years, Nomikos worked with: Dimitris Myrat; Katerina Theatre and Dimitris Horn’s troupes; the National Theater (19551959); the operas of Houston, New York, Cincinnati; Munich State Orchestra; and the festivals of Salzburg, Florence, and Athens. In 1955, he collaborated with the Greek National Opera for their production of Idomeneo, King of Crete, staged at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, as part of the newly established Athens Festival.
Nomikos moved to the United States and settled in New York in the 1950s. In 1956, Nomikos was hired as artistic director for the New York City Center Opera, with whom he designed sets for works by Pirandello, Ibsen, Bernard Shaw, and Eugene O’Neill, among others. He also taught classes at the University of Indiana at Bloomington, and as Professor Emeritus of Theater at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro (UNCG) from 1971. At this time, Nomikos developed his skills in painting and engraving, going on to feature internationally in individual and group exhibitions. His work is in the Athens Museum in Greece as well as churches, colleges, and private collections. In 1985, the National Gallery, Athens, presented a retrospective exhibition of his monotypes and costume drawings. He retired in 1986, and was an honouree of the UNCG’s Theater Hall of Fame for their 75th Anniversary celebrations in 1987.
William Rankin Crowder, Jr. (1947-2021) grew up in eastern North Carolina, moving with his family from parish to parish for his father’s Methodist ministry. His interest in art and design began early, as he would
meticulously handcraft stained glass ornaments at Christmas time. He went on to study art at Greensboro College, followed by the International School of Interior Design, Washington, D.C., and the New York School of Interior Design. He worked in the famous Franciscan Fabrics Showroom in New York City, where he was mentored by Charles Dear.
After 10 years in New York, Crowder moved his successful business to Greensboro, North Carolina. Here he established Crowder Designs with his brother, Gene W. Crowder, and his husband, Joseph Hoesl. His goal was to create functional beauty, combining antique, vintage, and modern furnishings to allow clients to ‘live bigger’ in their spaces. Crowder Designs established clients across the U.S., and internationally. Crowder also served on the board for the Green Hill Art Gallery, and created his own pieces which were often exhibited.
Andreas Nomikos (1917-1999)
William Rankin Crowder, Jr. (1947–2021)
CALLIGRAPHIC FRAGMENT FROM THE ALHAMBRA
Second half 14th century, Spain
Carved stucco, h : 19 cm; w : 28.5 cm; d : 2 cm
provenance
Originally from the Alhambra, Granada, Spain, most likely acquired between 18th-early 20th Century. Private Collection, acquired in 1975, mounted in old collection frame, with dated sticker on the reverse of the frame. ALR: S00238971, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
Intact fragment, in excellent condition, with natural weathering and encrustations as expected with age.
The Alhambra Palace, which sits overlooking the city of Granada in southern Spain, is an abiding reminder of the glories of Islamic Spain. It is both the last, and the greatest, example of the final flowering of Arab-Islamic culture in the region under the Nasrid dynasty (12381492). Beyond the spectacular architecture and setting of the buildings which make up the complex, one of the most notable features of the interiors are their remarkable calligraphic stucco decorations, cladding entire rooms with poetry, Qur’anic quotations, and the ubiquitous Nasrid motto featured on the present piece. Over the past five centuries, the great palatine city-fortress has suffered demolitions, rebuilding, the depredations of Napoleon’s armies and earthquakes, with most of what remains either in situ or in the museum situated within its grounds. Architectural elements from the Alhambra are therefore rare and highly sought-after, making the present piece particularly important. The inscription, written in a distinctive Nasrid variant of thuluth used for
architectural inscriptions as well as on other media, reads wa la Ghalib illa A[llah] (“There is no victor but G[od]”).
This was the motto of the Nasrid dynasty, appearing on coins as early as those of Muhammad I4 (r. 123873) and on silks, metalwork, and other media until the very end of the dynasty. Such is the visual power of this endlessly repeated aphorism that it has been described as “almost an icon; it appears in more or less perfect replica wherever the kings of Granada ruled.”
The background to the inscription is filled with split palmettes, which is typical of Nasrid architectural calligraphy and is found widely on the interiors of the Alhambra. Known in Spanish as ataurique (from the Arabic al-tawriq, ‘to bloom’ or ‘to leaf’), these vegetal designs were originally drawn from the visual repertoire of Umayyad Spain and were shared between weavers, potters, and stucco carvers during the Nasrid period.
Alhambra Lion Court.
The Alhambra, Granada, Spain
The dimensions, design, and inscription of the current fragment are almost identical to another fragment in the British Museum, which is labelled as "Brought from the Alhambra at Granada 1791 by Anne Seymour Damer”. Both the present fragment and that in the British Museum are now devoid of colour, but recent studies have confirmed historical sources in showing that polychromy was widely employed on the stucco decoration of the Alhambra, and this may well have originally been the case with these fragments.
Stucco was one of the main decorative elements within the Alhambra, used for the upper parts of walls with tiles below. The present rectangular fragment has a border at the top and base, suggesting that it may have run along the top or bottom of a larger architectural panel. Although it is now impossible to say exactly which building the present fragment may have originally been part of, the inner façade of the Sala de Dos Hermanas gives an idea of the interplay between
the motto in a repeating frieze along the top, with inscriptions of different scripts and sizes below and tile panels at the bottom. This was built under Muhammad V, who ruled with interruptions from 1354-91, and may suggest a similar dating for the present fragment.
A date of production later in the 14th century is supported by comparison with another fragment, also bearing the Nasrid motto, but which originally came from the entrance doorway to the Palacio del Partal. This is one of the earliest surviving parts of the Alhambra, built under Muhammad III between 1302-9. Here, the calligraphy has already reached the same form as that seen on the present fragment, but the ataurique which surrounds it is fleshier and less clearly delineated from the writing. The more careful separation of content and decoration would therefore appear to be a development which occurred in later Nasrid art and would place the present fragment within the context of these aesthetic developments.
A similar item can be found in the British Museum, London.
PAIR OF FATIMID KILGAS
12th Century, Egypt, Cairo, Fatimid
Marble, h : 39 cm; h : 31 cm; w : 38 cm and h : 38 cm; h : 35 cm; w : 39 cm
provenance
The Private Collection of Philippus van Ommeren III (1861-1945), Wassenaar, the Netherlands (accompanied by a 1920s painted tile tableau featuring the kilgas). Thence by descent.
ALR: S00231174, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
Overall, there are the inevitable small dents, marks, and scratches due to age and use. Both kilgas have some natural cracks in the marble. Four cracks of one kilga (with the twin lion heads) have at one point been filled with a composite material. Due to age and the elements, the carving has become smoother.
A tile tableau from the 1920s in the van Ommeren family collection, depicting the Rust en Vreugd country house. The kigas can be seen in the lower central tiles, decorating the garden stairs.
Both jar stands, or kilgas, are of typical octagonal form with a hollow centre leading to a sloped trough, and stand on four horn-shaped feet. They are each carved from a solid block of pale cream marble with dark grey veins. One of the kilgas has two open-mouthed lion heads above the trough, and tricuspid arches between the feet. The sides and reverse are decorated with geometric reliefs, in forms resembling architectural structures. The other has only one lion head, and is carved on the reverse with a relief motif of a goblet within a circle frame. Its feet are squatter than those of its companion, and are separated by arches with five cusps.
Kilgas were used as supports for unglazed porous earthenware water jars (habbs). The porous clay allowed water to seep from the jar, filtering and cooling
it. This water would then be collected in the basins of the kilgas, where it could be scooped out for drinking. Kilgas were, therefore, an effective means of reducing water wastage. These jar stands seem to have been unique to medieval Cairo, a city which was entirely dependent on the annual flooding of the River Nile for its water supply. Ibn Ridwan, a physician at the Fatimid court in Cairo in the 17th century, wrote ‘The best thing is not to use this water until it has been purified several times … the purified part is placed in a jar; only what seeps through the porosities of the jar will be used’. More than 75 examples of kilgas survive today in collections and museums.
As marble is not found locally in Cairo, kilgas must have been crafted from architectural spolia. One theory is that their regular octagonal shape is due to
the fact that they were carved from salvaged ancient Greek columns.
The architectural references in the relief decoration on the sides of the kilgas and the arches between the feet playfully recall real structures – for instance, the multifoil arches and basins of salsabil fountains. Salsabils also often feature lions as waterspouts. The all-important Nilometer at Rawda, which measured the level of the river, is said to have had a lion mounted on the wall of the intake conduit at the height representing plenitude (sixteen cubits) such that when the water rose to this point it would enter the feline’s mouth. It has been suggested that lions appear in these contexts because the Nile’s annual rise begins when the sun enters the astrological sign of Leo. The iconography of the kilgas is thereby linked to the source of the lifegiving water that they help to preserve.
note on the provenance
Philippus van Ommeren was born in 1861 in Rotterdam to a family that had been working in the shipping and harbour industry for generations. In 1878 he joined the company founded by his grandfather, the first Philippus van Ommeren, in 1839. He succeeded his grandfather as director in 1885. Van Ommeren took steps to modernise and expand the business – he founded the Maatshappij Stoomschip Dordrecht (Steamship Dordrecht Company Inc) in 1891 and purchased the company’s first steamship. After his success with this venture, he established two further single ship companies, before combining all three in 1899 to form Stoomvart Maatschappij De Maas. In 1910, van Ommeren established a storage company for petroleum and petroleum products, Matex, in Vlaardingen. He sold this to a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell in 1929 and founded a new tank storage company the same year. At the age of 70, van Ommeren retired from managing the group and was appointed extraordinary member of the Supervisory Board and honorary chairman of the Board. Van
Ommeren worked to encourage the regulation of trade and commerce; he served as a member of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Rotterdam from 1894, and was one of the founders of the Commercial Law Association in 1919. Van Ommeren was also awarded both the Dutch Order of Orange-Nassau and the Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure.
In 1907, van Ommeren and his wife, Wilhelmina Alida de Voogt, moved to the Rust en Vreugd (Rest and Joy) estate in Wassenaar. Like many other Rotterdammers who had become wealthy through the shipping industry, they were looking for a quiet green environment for their country house. The couple had a new country house built there in 1923, designed by architect Samuel de Clercq. The fusion of Art Deco and Egyptian styles may have been drawn from a villa
Philippus van Ommeren, 19xx?
MAMLUK PILGRIM FLASK
Mid-13th to mid-14th Century, Near East or Egypt Glass, diam (without neck) : 8.4 cm
provenance
Collection of Antonin ‘Tony’ Bernard Besse (1927-2016) and Christiane Besse (1928-2021), Paris, most likely acquired in Lebanon in the 1960s or early 1970s. Thence by descent to Antonin Louis Besse (b. 1958) and Joy-Isabelle Besse (b. 1959).
ALR: S00231178, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
The surface shows iridescence consistent with the age of the piece. The enamel and gilded design is still visible within the iridescent areas. There is a break where the neck meets the body, which has been repaired.
A blown glass pilgrim flask with a flat circular body leading to a short neck and everted lip. Moulded decoration covers the faces and sides, enamelled in red and green with gilded outlines. On each face a central quadrilobed floral motif is framed by arabesques in a symmetrical pattern around the circle. The sides are adorned with a series of fleur-de-lys – an early Mamluk blazon that is featured on coins and war drums, as well as personal objects like combs. Polychromatic iridescence has formed across the surface of the glass.
Enamelling on glass was first developed in the Syrian region, probably at Raqqa; recent research has moved the earliest date of its production to the last two decades of the 12th century or the early 13th century. After the Mamluks made Cairo the official capital of their empire, glassmakers at Fustat soon became active. The mid-13th century has been referred to as the ‘golden age’ of gilding and enamelling on Islamic glass and, by the 14th century, most enamelled glass was probably produced in Egypt. Enamelling required
Parallel: Pilgrim Flask, Ayyubid Dynasty, c. 1250-1260, Syria. Glass and gold.
h : 23.2 cm; h : 23 cm; h : 15.2 cm. The British Museum, London (1869,0120.3).
a sophisticated control over the temperature of the wood-fuelled kilns of the medieval period, which had to remain consistent for prolonged periods in order to fix the different colours to the glass surface. Throughout the following centuries of Mamluk rule, glass production expanded into a wide range of different forms adapted from metalwork, pottery, leather, and ivory, and dimensions were increased dramatically. Small, portable enamelled and gilded glassware, such as this flask, was produced mainly towards the earlier period of the Mamluk Sultanate (1250-1517). Initially, many different colours were used together, but by the time Nās ir Muh ammad ibn Qalāūn (r. 1293-1341 A.D.) came to power, a more controlled palette of red and blue with gold outlines was the standard. This period is also typified by a more orthodox restriction of decorative motifs to the vegetal and aniconic.
note on the provenance
Antonin ‘Tony’ Besse II (1927-2016) was the sixth child and third son of the prominent French-born, Aden-based businessman Antonin Besse and his second wife Hildra Crowther. His father, a passionate anglophile and prominent anti-Nazi, founded St. Anthony’s College, Oxford, was forever immortalised as Mr Baldwin in Evelyn Waugh’s novel Scoop, and was described by the travel writer and explorer Freya Stark as “a merchant in the style of the Arabian Nights”. He was a shrewd businessman who by 1923 controlled 72 per cent of the Red Sea oil trade, and in 1936 installed the first diesel engines in Arab dhows, building up a fleet that could operate in all weathers carrying mutton from Berbera to Aden.
Born in the south of France, Tony Besse II spent his youth running errands for the French resistance in the Alpilles. His formal education ended after he stood up in assembly and shouted at the headmaster, a Vichy supporter. He was interrogated but the Italian officer
had been in Somalia and knew of his father, and cried, “You have your life in front of you. Run!”
Spells as a resistance fighter and, post-war, working the black market followed. At one point, after an argument with his father in Aden, he jumped on one of the company’s ships to New York and worked for a spell as an unlicensed taxi driver. After his father’s death in 1951 he took over the running of the family business, aged 24. During the 60s the couple was actively involved in the excavations at Palmyra and in Libya. Besse ran the family company until it was lost to Communist control, as their interests were nationalised in 1969. He eventually made a home in Paris, but his heart remained in the war-torn Middle East.
In later life he was persuaded by Kurt Hahn, his father’s great friend and the founder of Gordonstoun, to help fund the founding of what is now UWC Atlantic, buying St Donat’s Castle, a 12th century castle in South Wales once owned by William Randolph Hearst.
Antonin 'Tony' and Christiane Besse, 1933.
Christiane Besse (1928-2021) was born, Christiane Château on 7th November 1928 in Senegal, the daughter of a soldier, and grew up in Morocco before moving to France to study. She became a journalist in the 1950s, and was sent to Yemen, where she became the first French female journalist to report on affairs there. She met Tony Besse in 1957. In later life she was an editor and translator and was the first person to translate the works of William Boyd, James Baldwin, and others into French.
Their astonishing collection was started by Tony Besse’s father, Antonin Besse, who bequeathed a large portion of his collection to the British Museum, where it still resides. It was, however, under the erudite and careful nurturing of Christiane Besse that the collection flourished. Her children, Antonin and Joy-
Isabelle have written of her intelligence and also of her uncanny foresight in preserving the export certificates obtained from the last days of the British Protectorate, something which almost all other Southern Arabian pieces sadly lack. She and Tony continued to collect on their relocation to Beirut in the 60s, however, when Lebanon fell into the chaos of a civil war they returned to France, and did not add again to their collection, having lost so many esteemed friends, including archaeologists and antiquarians with whom they had carefully worked to curate their collection.
This collection of first-rate Southern Arabian items represents, then, the passionate love of an cultivated and international couple who had made their home in the Middle East, before war and the changing political scene forced them back to Europe.
25
IBEX FRIEZE
3rd Century b.c.–1st Century a.d., Qataban Alabaster, h : 20.8 cm; l : 49.5 cm; w : 6.5 cm
published
Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art, Sotheby’s, London, 7 December 2021, Lot 3.
provenance
Antonin Besse (1927-2016) and Christiane Besse (1928-2021), Aden and Paris, acquired in Yemen in the 1960s, collection number CB29 A&B (recorded for export by the Department of Antiquities, Aden State, in May 1966 and April 1967).
Thence by descent to their children Antonin and Joy-Isabelle Besse, 14th February 2021.
Sold at: Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art, Sotheby’s, London, 7 December 2021, Lot 3. ALR: S00218522, with IADAA certificate, this item has been searched against the Interpol database.
condition
Repaired from two fragments. Otherwise as shown, with only minor chips and abrasions.
Aden State certificate of registration, 18th April 1967.
State of Aden Export Licence, issued 18th April 1967.
Photographs taken circa May 1966.
Twelve stylised ibex heads, elongated and carved in relief. With globular eyes and long ears and horns. Flanked by two architecturally suggestive rectangular panels with indented niches.
The ibex, a common form of wild goat, was the most widely represented animal in southwestern Arabian art. Ritual ibex hunts were an important feature of the cult practices of the southwestern Arabian kingdoms, and successfully capturing and killing these elusive creatures was believed to secure favours from the gods. Ibex skulls and horns were also used as architectural decorations on the upper corners of houses, where they are still occasionally found today.
A similar frieze, depicting nine stylised ibex heads, is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where it is catalogued as a fragment of a grave stele.
note on the provenance
With Antonin ‘Tony’ Besse II (1927-2016), for more information please see item 27 ‘Mamluk Pilgrim Flask’. Pg 143.
HEAD OF A WOMAN
3rd century b.c.–1st century a.d., Yemen
Alabaster, h : 24 cm
published
L’OEil, n°422, January 1990, pg.45.
Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art, Sotheby’s, London, 7 December 2021, Lot 9.
provenance
Most likely from Marib or Timna.
Antonin Besse (1927-2016) and Christiane Besse (1928-2021), Aden and Paris, acquired in Yemen in the 1960s, collection number CB25 (recorded for export to France by the Department of Antiquities, Aden State, in May 1966 and April 1967)
Thence by descent to their children Antonin and Joy-Isabelle Besse, 14th February 2021.
Sold at: Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art, Sotheby’s, London, 7 December 2021, Lot 9.
ALR: S00218615, with IADAA certificate, this item has been searched against the Interpol database.
condition
Structurally sound and in good condition. Minimal surface dirt apparent with a slight build up visible under each nostril. Some light scratching and small localised dents visible. The outside edges of the carved ears have incurred previous damage and a small percentage of loss. A red paint mark and surface abrasions apparent to the back proper left side of head suggesting casual contact with a modern material. Loss of material to the lower back proper right side of neck. The eye and eyebrow inserts are now missing.
General wear to the surface and loses appear in keeping with age and use.
Alabaster head at the Besse home. Aden State certificate of L’OEil, n°422, January 1990. The head can be seen in the upper right image, on the far right.
With a long tapering neck, high distinct cheekbones and almond-shaped eyes which are missing the original inlay. The mouth and grooved eyebrows are carved, and the coiffure is visible either side of the neck.
This elegant head of a woman is reputedly from Marib, the ancient capital of the kingdom of Saba’, in Southern Arabia, modern-day northern Yemen. A land of great wealth, the Sabaeans were a seafaring people who traded spices such as frankincense and myrrh. Some
scholars believe it to be the site of the biblical land of Sheba, from where the famously wealthy Queen of Sheba originated.
Most likely created to adorn a niche in a tomb, this head would have belonged to a high-status private individual.
note on the provenance
With Antonin ‘Tony’ Besse II (1927-2016), for more information please see item 27 ‘Mamluk Pilgrim Flask’.
BULL STELE
3rd century b.c.–1st century a.d., Qataban Alabaster, h : 36.2 cm
published
Fine Antiquities, Christie's, London, 16 December 1982, Lot 111.
Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art, Sotheby’s, London, 7 December 2021, Lot 16.
provenance
Reputedly from Beihan, probably from Hayd ibn 'Aqil, the necropolis of ancient Timna'.
Antonin Besse (1927-2016) and Christiane Besse (1928-2021), Aden and Paris, acquired in Yemen in 1960, collection number CB60 (recorded for export to France by the Department of Antiquities, Aden State, in April 1967).
Thence by descent to their children Antonin and Joy-Isabelle Besse, 14th February 2021.
Sold at: Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art, Sotheby’s, London, 7 December 2021, Lot 16.
ALR: S00218617, with IADAA certificate, this item has been searched against the Interpol database.
condition
In very good condition, the horns of the bull missing as illustrated. Very minor losses to the edges of the ears. Minor chips, nicks and abrasions throughout. Mounted and inserted into a custom-made wood base.
Trapezoidal in form, carved in very high relief, with the form of a bull’s head with ribbed brows and a rounded snout. The horns now missing. Inserted onto a rectangular alabaster base upon which is a Qatabanian inscription, which reads: ʾlʿm S¹flyn – the name of a man.
These carved bull stelae are almost certainly ritual objects. The name of a man possibly indicates a funerary intent, with the deceased name recorded. The bull, however, was sacred in ancient South Arabia and is a commonly occurring religious motif and could therefore indicate that this sculpture once adorned a temple.
It is reputed to have come from Hayd ibn 'Aqil, the necropolis of ancient Timna’, located a little to the north of the city. Timna’ was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Qataban, one of the richest kingdoms of ancient South Arabia, whose wealth derived largely from its strategic position along the Incense Route, as
a trading point for merchants dealing in spices, most importantly frankincense, myrrh and cinnamon. According to the Roman author Pliny the Elder, who died in 79 A.D., Timna’ was a bustling city with some sixty-five temples. Excavations suggest a major fire forced its inhabitants to abandon the city sometime in the first century A.D
Sir Antonin Besse, Tony Besse’s father, gifted a collection of South Arabian sculptures to the British Museum in the 50s, amongst which were three carved bull stelae – one of which was similarly inscribed with the name of a man, Ab’am Hazr, and was also reputed to have come from Beihan.
note on the provenance
With Antonin ‘Tony’ Besse II (1927-2016), for more information please see item 27 ‘Mamluk Pilgrim Flask’.
BYZANTINE MOSAIC PANEL
Circa late 4th Century a.d., possibly near Antioch Stone, l : 175 cm; h : 83 cm
published
Sheila McNally, ‘Three Late Antique Mosaics’, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin, LVIII (1969), p. 5, no. 3.
Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art, Sotheby’s, London, 7 December 2021, Lot 30.
provenance
With Asfar Bros., Hotel St. George, Beirut, by 1969.
Private Collection of Antonin Besse (1927-2016) and Christiane Besse (1928-2021), Beirut and Paris, acquired from the above and shipped to France in January 1970, accompanied by an invoice dated 23 January 1970, and shipping documents.
Sold at: Sotheby’s, London, Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art, 7 December 2021, Lot 30.
Private Collection, Malibu, California, acquired from the above.
ALR: S00241622, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol
condition
Tesserae reset into thick concrete panel reinforced inside with steel bars. Tarp impressions visible all around frame. Some tesserae missing, as visible in photo, others obscured by excess grout. A few probably replaced. Red tesserae used for Greek lettering in general more worn than white or yellow ones due to softness of stone.
A rectangular Byzantine mosaic, composed of red tesserae arranged in five lines of Greek inscription, divided by horizontal yellow lines, within a multicoloured tabula ansata. The inscription translates as ‘Under Apolinarios the most venerable priest and periodeutes, the church was paved with mosaics in the year 709 (probably A.D. 397), the month of Daisias, on the twelfth day’. The inscription terminates with a horizontal voluted S motif.
The art of the mosaic flourished throughout the Byzantine Empire (330-1453), building on Hellenistic and Roman practices with significant technical advances to transform the mosaic into a powerful form of personal and religious expression. The Byzantines expanded the range of materials that could be used as tesserae, adding gold leaf and precious stones to their more ornate designs. Before the tesserae were laid, the foundation was prepared in multiple layers. The final layer was formed of a fine mix of crushed lime and brick powder, like cement. While this surface was still wet, artists
traced the outlines of the design into the surface, before carefully positioning the tesserae into the final image.
Two main types of mosaic survive from this period: wall mosaics in churches and palaces, made of glass tesserae against gold leaf, and floor mosaics crafted from stone. The vast majority of extant mosaics are of religious nature, and feature similar subjects to painted icons and manuscript miniatures from the time. These were never placed on the floor, as it was unacceptable to walk upon images of sacred figures. Floor mosaics often featured geometrical patterns and animals, as well as scenes of hunting and venatio. Based on the materials used for this aniconic panel, it is likely it was placed in the floor of the church it was dedicated to, as a record of the other mosaics installed around the walls.
note on the provenance
With Antonin ‘Tony’ Besse II (1927-2016), for more information please see item 27 ‘Mamluk Pilgrim Flask’.
Asfar Bros. invoice dated 23 January 1970. Tony Besse purchased two mosaics with inscriptions, no. 12.
BYZANTINE MOSAIC PANEL
Circa Early 5th Century a.d., possibly Antioch or Apamene Stone, l : 200 cm; h : 78.5 cm
published
Sheila McNally, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin, LVIII (1969), p. 5, no. 1.
Pierre Canivet, ‘Nouvelles Inscriptions Grecques Chrétiennes à H � ūarte d’Apamène (Syrie)’, Travaux et Mémoires, 7 (1979), Centre de Recerche d’Histoire et Civilisation de Byzance, p. 352, note 4.
Pauline Donceel-Voûte, Les pavements des églises byzantines de Syrie et du Liban. Décor, archéologie et liturgie, Publications d’Archéologie et d’Histoire de l’Art de l’Université Catholique de Louvain, 69 (1988), p. 467, fig. 446.
H. W. Pleket and R. S. Stroud (eds.), Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, vol. 40 (Amsterdam, 1990), p. 550, no. 1773.
Jean Bingen, ‘Sur quelques Mosaïques Inscrites d’Apamène’, Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, 95 (1993), p. 123.
Denis Feissel, ‘L’épigraphie des mosaïques d’églises en Syrie et au Liban’, Antiquité tardive, 2 (1994), p. 288.
Jean-Paul Rey-Coquais, ‘Mosaïques inscrites paléochrétiennes de la Syrie du Nord-Ouest’, Syria, 73:1/4 (1996), p. 105, Inscription no. 2 ter.
Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art, Sotheby’s, London, 7 December 2021, Lot 29.
provenance
With Asfar Bros., Hotel St. George, Beirut, from at least 1968, recorded there by Henri Seyrig in 1968.
Private Collection of Antonin Besse (1927-2016) and Christiane Besse (1928-2021), Beirut and Paris, acquired from the above and shipped to France in January 1970, accompanied by an invoice dated 23 January 1970, and shipping documents.
Sold at: Sotheby’s, London, Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art, 7 December 2021, Lot 29.
Private Collection, Malibu, California, acquired from the above.
ALR: S00241621, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
1969.
Tesserae reset into thick concrete panel and reinforced inside with steel bars. Tarp impressions visible around frame. Very few tesserae missing, and many obscured by excess grout especially on the right half of the mosaic. Two clear areas of restoration including the M of Benyamin and the end of the N in ‘oikonomou’. 1993. 1996. 1988. 1978.
Shipping documents for transporting the mosaic from Beirut to Marseille, dated January 1970.
A rectangular Byzantine mosaic, comprising six lines of Greek text in black and red tesserae set within a blue rectangular frame against a white background. The second line down is in red, the rest in black. The inscription translates as: ‘In the year 727 [probably 415/416 A.D.] the most sacred church was paved with mosaics, under the most venerable bishop Alexander, under John the periodeutes, Antiochos the priest, Stephen the deacon, Benjamin the cantor, and Thalassios the steward of Cyril’. The text terminates with a stylised palm frond in black.
note on the provenance
With Antonin ‘Tony’ Besse II (1927-2016), for more information please see item 27 ‘Mamluk Pilgrim Flask’.
FRAGMENT OF GENESIS FROM A VERY EARLY HEBREW BIBLE
Circa 9th–10th Century
Black ink on vellum, h : 27 cm; h : 30 cm. Frame, h : 47 cm; h : 43 cm.
published
D. S. Sassoon, Ohel David, Descriptive Catalogue of the Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts in the Sassoon Library (1932), I, pp. 27-28, no. 566 (a).
Seventy-six Important Hebrew and Samaritan Manuscripts from the library of the late David Solomon Sassoon, Sotheby’s, London, 21 July 1994, Lot 1 (1).
The History of Western Script: Important Antiquities and Manuscripts from the Schøyen Collection, Christie’s, London, 10 July 2019, Lot 409.
provenance
Previously in the Private Collection of David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942), London, acquired in December 1922 together with eight other Biblical texts from the Cairo Genizah, and bound as Sassoon MS.566.
Private Collection of Dr Martin Schøyen (b. 31 January 1940), Oslo and London, MS 1858/1.
Sold at: The History of Western Script: Important Antiquities and Manuscripts from the Schøyen Collection, Christie’s, London, 10 July 2019, Lot 409.
London art market, acquired from the above sale.
ALR: S00212480, S00236270, with IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
Mounted, in good stable condition but fragmentary as expected with age. Areas of consolidation and strengthening with monofilament net. Sensitive to light and environmental damage so should be kept in the correct conditions for future preservation.
A fragment of one of the earliest surviving Hebrew Bible manuscripts, dating to the ninth-tenth century. This piece is from the Cairo Genizah, the cache of manuscripts from the Ben Ezra Synagogue, Cairo, Egypt – the most important cache of early Medieval Jewish manuscripts ever discovered.
The text is written in black ink on vellum, in large, fine Eastern Hebrew square script, and is not vocalised. The vellum is inscribed on both sides with part of 3 columns of 17 lines, blind-ruled, with the story of Cain and Abel, Genesis 4:1-23. The script is extremely close to that of B.L.Or.445, the earliest Pentateuch in the British Library, attributed to the ninth or tenth century. Even small fragments of this date are extremely scarce.
The leaf rivals in date, or even predates, the earliest Hebrew biblical codices of the ninth or tenth century, such as the surviving parts of the Aleppo Codex (c. 920, Jerusalem, Shrine of the Book), the Damascus Pentateuch (c. 1000, Jerusalem, Hebrew University), the St. Petersburg Codex (dated 1008/1009, National Library of Russia, MS.B19a), and the London Codex (c. tenth century, British Library, Or.4445).
in a local cemetery. The community of Palestinian Rabbanite Jews at Fustat, to the south of Cairo, planned a genizah, where ancient Hebrew manuscripts were being deposited by at least the eleventh century. Ultimately, the internment was never carried out, and the Cairo Genizah was continuously added to in the Ben Ezra Synagogue over the course of centuries, becoming a vast repository of sacred documents and fragments of manuscripts from all parts of the Jewish world, including the Middle East and Spain. The Jews of Fustat preserved almost everything they wrote down, as well as sacred texts, as so many of their writings referenced the holy name. Moreover, they spoke in Arabic but wrote in Hebrew, so may have viewed the alphabet itself as sacred.
note on the provenance
The Cairo Genizah is the one of the most significant sources for fragments of early Hebrew manuscripts, second only to the caves of Qu’mran, containing around 300,000 manuscript fragments. The word ‘genizah’ comes from the Hebrew ‘ganaz’, meaning to hide or set aside; from biblical times synagogues were fitted with storerooms for the safekeeping of sacred treasure. It became the practice that any worn out or obsolete copies of the Bible or other manuscripts including the divine name should be buried rather than destroyed. Such books were collected up and stored in a genizah until the burial could take place, often
The Cairo Genizah gradually fell into disuse, so that by the eighteenth century it was no longer physically accessible. By the mid-nineteenth century it was rumoured to be the dwelling of snakes and demons, before local antiquities dealers gained partial access through renovations to the synagogue in 1891. Linguist Archibald Sayce attempted to acquire the entire collection for the Bodleian Library, Oxford, in 1892, but was ultimately unsuccessful. In 1896, Scottish twin sisters Agnes S. Lewis and Margaret D. Gibson brought fragments from the Genizah to Cambridge, where they showed them to their ‘irrepressibly curious rabbinical friend’ – fellow Cambridge scholar Solomon Schecter. Schechter travelled to Egypt with Charles Taylor, Master of St. John’s College, and obtained the remaining 193,000 fragments for Cambridge University Library (now the Taylor-Schecter Cairo Genizah Collection, the world’s largest and most important single collection of medieval Jewish manuscripts). For half a century these were the oldest Hebrew manuscripts known, and the news of its discovery was greatly exciting. An 1897 letter of Solomon Schecter to the Times described the Genizah as, ‘a battlefield of books, [in which] […] the literary production of many centuries had their
share in the battle, and their “dijecta membra” are now strewn over its area’.
Scholars have been able to extrapolate a great amount of information from the Cairo Genizah about the Fustat community and about life for Jews during the Islamic Period in cities such as Baghdad, Damascus, and Aleppo. There is no other record as long or as full.
David Solomon Sassoon (1880-1942) was born in Bombay to Flora and Solomon Sassoon, and was grandson of nineteenth-century Baghdadi Jewish community leader David Sassoon. He was educated in Jewish subjects, as well as Arabic reading and writing, by imported Baghdadi tutors. By the age of eight, Sassoon knew the prayers for the entire liturgical year and almost the entire Hebrew Bible by heart. He learned the family business from his mother, who headed the firm’s Bombay offices and served as chairwoman of the Sassoon Spinning and Weaving Co. Ltd., Sassoon and Alliance Silk Manufacturing Co. Ld., and the Port Canning and Land Improvement Co.. Following his father’s death in 1894, his family moved to London in 1902. Sassoon married Selina Prins in 1912, and together they had two children: Flora and Solomon.
Sassoon had great success as a businessman, public activist, and philanthropist, but he was truly a dedicated scholar. He read widely in both traditional and modern academic literature, learned Persian and Greek, and
could even interpret hieroglyphics. He wrote and edited six books and nearly fifty articles, with others unpublished in manuscript. He also corresponded with and hosted key members of contemporary Jewish society, including Hayyim Nahman Bialik, Nahum Sokolow, Samuel Krauss, Abraham Yaari, and Rabbis, Shemtob Gaguin, J.H. Hertz, and Isaac ha-Levi Herzog.
A passionate bibliophile, Sassoon began collecting at a very early age, and travelled extensively to collect Hebrew books and manuscripts. The first manuscript he collected was an illuminated Scroll of Esther with the genealogical tables of Mordecai and Haman, which had belonged to one of his uncles. He would make enquiries about ancient, historically important, and beautifully illuminated Hebrew print books and manuscripts at every country he travelled to. In 1902, Sassoon had his first opportunity of acquiring some Genizah fragments on his journey from Damascus to India via Egypt, and continued to seek them out from then on – he acquired this fragment, along with eight others, in December 1922. According to a 1975 Sotheby’s auction catalogue, Sassoon was the chief buyers at their sales of the libraries of Solomon Schloss, Lord Amherst of Hackney (1908), Lord Vernon (1908), and many others. He also dealt extensively with prominent antiquarian booksellers like David Frankel, Lipa Schwager, and Jacob Moses
Solomon Schechter at work in the old Cambridge University Library.
David Solomon Sassoon (1990-1942) at his typewriter
Toledano. At the end of the First World War, Sassoon’s collection numbered 500 manuscripts, and great Hebrew bibliophile Elkan Nathan Adler described his collection then as ‘of the highest importance, both from the artistic and literary point of view’. Between 1914 and 1932, Sassoon’s collection grew to 1,220 manuscripts, 1,153 of which are fully described in the two-volume catalogue he published in 1932, Ohel David. Sassoon was thoroughly versed in the contents of his library and used the texts for his own research and writing. He also opened it to other scholars for study. His collection is extremely important, as it has provided scholars the opportunity to study around 24 distinct liturgical rites used by different Jewish communities of the nineteenth century. In 1941, Cecil Roth described it as ‘one of the most magnificent collection of Hebrew manuscripts in private hands in the world today’.
Much of Sassoon’s collection was auctioned by Sotheby’s, London, between 1975 and 1994 in order to pay off his estate’s British tax obligations. Most of what remains of the collection is stored at the University of Toronto, Canada, and a small number of manuscripts are at the British Library, London.
Dr. Martin Schøyen (b. 31 January 1940) was heir to a Norwegian shipping and transport business, but he also inherited from his father a deep enthusiasm for antiquity and bibliophily. The Schøyen Collection was started by his father, M. O. Schøyen (1896-1962), who gathered around 1,000 volumes of early and later editions of Norwegian and international literature, history, travel, science, and antiquities. Martin’s first acquisition – a manuscript from circa 1300 –was made in 1955, whilst still a teenager. By the mid1980s, Schøyen was well known to auction houses, academics, and dealers, as a committed bibliophile, who chose his selections based on scholarship and study of the market. His focus was initially on Biblical and monastic manuscripts, but it soon extended
beyond to encompass the entire history of writing and literary culture around the world and over the course of five millennia. His palaeographic collection is one of the most extensive and wide-ranging ever assembled, containing more than 13,000 manuscripts, with the oldest being almost 5,300 years old. The collection features works from 134 different countries and territories, and represents 120 languages and 185 scripts. Committed to spreading knowledge of his collection, Schøyen has made part of it available online on his website (www.schoyencollection.com) and 34 printed catalogues of entire sections have been published in the Manuscripts in the Schøyen Collection series.
Dr. Martin Schøyen ( b. 31 January 1940).
EXTRAORDINARY GREEN RIVER TURTLE
Axestemys byssinus
Early Eocene (50 million years)
Found in the Green River Formation, Wyoming, USA
h : 155 cm; w : 139 cm; d : 9 cm
Skull: w : 25 cm. Shell: h : 63.5 cm; w : 58.5 cm
provenance
Discovered in Lincoln County in the State of Wyoming, USA, at GPS coordinates 41.77305, -110.73941.
Collected 24 September 2020.
With IADAA certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
Structurally stable and in good condition, fossil is mounted within the surrounding matrix. The outside, excavated edge surrounding the fossil has been filled and colour toned in acrylic, as have areas between the elements of fossilised bone. Breaks observed to the head and body section. The areas have been restored and colour toned sympathetically. The upper forelimb on the proper left and lower hind-limbs include elements of reconstruction as described within the bone map. Full condition report available.
Map showing the Green River location.
This giant turtle Axestemys byssinus is an extremely rare specimen in exceptional condition, found in the Green River Formation in south-western Wyoming. The sediments of the Green River Formation present a continuous record of six million years. One area of the formation in Fossil Butte National Monument Wyoming is known as ‘Fossil Lake’, because of its abundance of exceptionally well-preserved fish fossils.
Soft-shell turtles belong to a specialised family of turtles called the Trionychidae - a unique group of
turtles which lack the hard keratinized shell common to other kinds of turtles. The carapace (upper shell) and plastron (lower shell) of soft-shell turtles are covered in soft, leathery skin which is flexible around the edges.
Fossil turtles from the Green River Formation are extremely rare. Less than 25 complete Axestemys byssinus have ever been found; they are among the most sought after of all fossils due to their size, beauty, and rarity.
Discovery point.
Image taken before full excavation.
PACHYCEPHALOSAURUS SKULL ‘P. WYOMINGENSIS’
Maastrichtian, Late Cretaceous Period (68–66 million years ago) Carter County, Montana, USA
Fossilized Bone, w : 24 cm; h : 33 cm
provenance
Discovered on private land belonging to Dave and Lynette Donahey, Carter County, Montana, USA at GPS Coordinates: N 45 28.843 / W 104 10.866. Excavated by Craig Pfister of Greater Plains Palaeontology. With IADAA certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
condition
In its complete fragmentary form with previous restorations removed, comprising of the upper cranium and eye sockets.
An extraordinarily rare skull of Pachcysephalosaurus, the ‘thick-skulled lizard’, which lived around 65-68 million years ago in the late Cretaceous period of North America, alongside some of the most iconic dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops. It is known from only one species, P. wyomingensis, the adult forms of which are only known from skull remains.
Probably herbivorous and bipedal, it is most famous for the large dome at the top of its head, which in some cases grew to be over 25cm thick and which it may have used as a weapon, to head-butt predators and rivals. Pachycephalosaurus is notable for having drastic ontogenetic stages (juvenile skeletons look significantly different from adult), so much so that two of its juvenile forms were originally assigned to different genera; Dracorex and Stygimoloch.
Given that to this date only skulls have been found, the exact size and shape of its body can only be estimated,
and reproductions are based upon more complete relatives, such as those of the Stegoceras.
Cast of a Pachycephalosaurus skull in Oxford University Museum of Natural History.
Images taken at find spot during excavation, USA.
JUVENILE TYRANNOSAURUS REX SKELETON
Maastrichtian age, Late Cretaceous Period (68–66 million years ago)
Discovered: Garfield County, Montana, USA
Fossilised Bone, circa l : 6 m; w : 2 m; weight : circa 900 kg
provenance
Discovered in Garfield County in the State of Montana, USA, at or about N46° 57.918’ and W107° 12.674’. With IADAA Certificate, this item has been checked against the Interpol database.
A rare juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, one of only five complete examples known. The skeleton is approximately 55% complete and, most importantly, has a skull that is over 90% complete. This is an extremely good state of condition for this kind of skeleton. Our understanding of the T. rex species, which roamed the earth during the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous period, around 68 to 66 million years ago, has been greatly expanded through study of juvenile skeletons.
In 1942, palaeontologists from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History excavated a small tyrannosaurid skull in southeastern Montana. As the skull was evidently from a carnivorous dinosaur, but was significantly smaller than a fully-grown T. rex (the only large carnivore from that region), the skull was denominated as ‘Nanotyrannus’, or ‘very small tyrannosaur’ in 1988. Two further small tyrannosaur skeletons were discovered in Montana in the early 2000s, both approximately six feet tall and twelve feet long: ‘Jane’ (BMRP 2002.4.1) and ‘Petey’ (BMRP 2006.4.4). These discoveries sparked an ongoing debate as to whether Nanotyrannus truly was a distinct species; morphological skull features of the two new skulls had much in common with undisputed juvenile individuals of other tyrannosaurids. At present, the scientific community is mostly in agreement that the skeletons represent juvenile T. rex. A groundbreaking study, published in 2020 and headed by Holly N. Woodward, analysed the growth rings within femur and tibia bones sampled from the skeletons, to confirm that the specimen were still growing at their time of death. Rather than a separate species, these skeletons most likely represent a distinct ontogenetic stage of a juvenile, or sub-adult, Tyrannosaurus rex.
Woodward’s study found that juvenile T. rexes grew in large, inconsistent growth spurts, growing quickly when food was plentiful, and stopping growth
altogether when it was not. At the peak of their growth spurt (between the ages of 14 and 18), T. rexes grew as much as 2.1 kilograms per day. Their exceptionally rapid growth compared to other dinosaurs – a juvenile T. rex outgrew Albertosaurus and Gorgosaurus at around the age of 12 – gave them an advantage over other species, as they quickly grew out of their young and vulnerable stage. Over a span of about 5 years, their body mass more than doubled.
Hatchling and juvenile T. rex are now believed to have been clad in feathers, which they mostly lost as they reached maturity, retaining only a few on their heads, spines, and tails. These feathers provided warmth and camouflage to the younger rexes, to protect the hatchlings and aid the juveniles as they developed their hunting skills.
While adult T. rex walked to stalk their prey before crushing them in their heavy, bone-crunching jaws, juveniles were smaller, faster, and more agile. Juvenile T. rexes had big feet and proportionally larger legs and arms than their adult counterparts, with estimates suggesting they may have run as fast as 20-30 miles per hour. They also had a more open shoulder socket than adults, indicating they could potentially have had a wider range of arm movement to capture or manipulate prey. Their bladelike teeth are also significantly different to the large, blunt dental crowns of adults, and better adapted to precision bites and cutting through flesh. A 2019 study found that juvenile T. rex teeth were still capable of puncturing bone, and could exert up to 5,641 newtons of force. Comparatively, a human has about 300 newtons of biting power and an adult T. rex can bite down with a force of around 35,000 newtons. It is now theorised that juvenile tyranosaurids may have outcompeted other medium-sized predators and driven them to extinction. Juvenile T. rex may, therefore, have dominated their ecological niche with the same ruthless efficacy as the fully-grown dinosaurs.
