RUPERT WACE . KASMIN
DIZYGOTICA C ATA LO G UE
DIZYGOTICA ANTIQUITIES AND POSTCARDS: AN EXHIBITION BY RUPERT WACE AND KASMIN CURATED BY SOPHIE HICKS
2017
LIMITED EDITION
/50
DIZYGOTICA First, there was the immortal Kasmin: the impish art dealer; the quirky dealer-dabbler in antiquities; and, latterly, the obsessive-compulsive collector of postcards with the oblique perspective on nearly everything. Then, several centuries later, there was quirky, impish, obsessive-compulsive Rupert: the dishevelled aesthete; the owlish scholar of the ancient world; and the noted dealer in seemingly immortal antiquities with the oblique perspective on everything else. One fateful day, many years ago – as it happens, in the cooking-to-curiosa section of a semidisreputable bookshop – their famously discerning eyes met and nature took its course. They fell head over Elamite chariot wheels in self-love; rapidly and discreetly concealed the bargain rarities they had in their hands; and, after a few brief words, determined to add each other to their voluminous collections of friends. Their friendship prospered; and ever since, they have done, with gusto, what all good friends do: laughed with one another and laughed at one another; aped one another and scorned one another; undermined one another and supported one another. Above all, they have talked to each other, sometimes in silence. This exhibition, devised and curated by architect and stylemeister Sophie Hicks, is a celebration and partial explanation of that friendship. However, it is a celebration of other things, too: of our never-ending, ever-recommencing conversation with the past; of the ever-changing and never-changing nature of human experience; and of the infinite variety and ineluctable consistency of human civilisation. Perhaps, also, it is a reminder that nothing on the face of the earth – nothing living; nothing dead - is an island entire of itself: no sentence or gesture; no thought or feeling; no form or material; no artefact or work of art; no place or moment in time. Everything has its echo. Everything has its dizygotic twin. Everything and everybody… It’s just a matter of knowing where, when and how to look.
APULIAN TALL RED-FIGURE AMPHORA Magna-Graecia, c.330–310 BC Height: 43.8 cm Provenance: Private collection Switzerland, acquired before 1970
GREEK TERRACOTTA NEW COMEDY MASK 3rd century BC Height: 7.7 cm Provenance: Schatz collection, Germany, acquired 1974
GREEK BRONZE PATERA HANDLE IN THE FORM OF A NAKED YOUTH 5th century BC Height: 17 cm Provenance: Private collection UK, acquired prior to 1970
ROMAN MARBLE TORSO OF A SATYR 1st–3rd century AD Height: 52 cm Provenance: Private collection Belgium (Mme Ch.), acquired prior to 1970
PAIR OF ROMAN GOLD, GARNET AND PEARL EARRINGS c. 2nd–3rd century AD Length: 3.5 cm Provenance: Private collection Germany, acquired 1950s
SUMERIAN CUNEIFORM CLAY BRICK OF AMAR-SIN, KING OF UR Babylonian, Early 2nd millennium BC Dimensions: 26 x 26 cm Provenance: Private collection, Marseille, acquired before 1970
PHOENICIAN GLASS HEAD BEAD c. 5th–4th century BC Height: 3.2 cm Provenance: Collection of Eberhardt Voigt (1920–1983) Germany, acquired 1960s – early 1970s and thence by descent
EGYPTIAN BRONZE SEATED FIGURE OF AMUN Third Intermediate Period, 21st–24th Dynasty, 1069–715 BC Height: 19 cm Provenance: Private collection UK, acquired 1950s and thence be descent
GREEK TERRACOTTA MODEL OF A HORSE AND RIDER Boeotian, 6th century BC Height: 10.3 cm Provenance: Collection of Sir Clifford Norton (British Ambassador to Greece 1946–51) and thence by descent; Sold Phillips, London, 3 July 1991; Private collection UK
EGYPTIAN PREDYNASTIC BLACK-TOPPED JAR Naqada II, 3700–3250 BC Height: 15.4 cm Provenance: Private collection London, and thence by descent
ROMAN TERRACOTTA OIL LAMP WITH DANCING SATYR 2nd century AD Length: 9.5 cm Provenance: Private collection (B.L.), Paris
EGYPTIAN BRONZE ISIS AND HORUS Late Dynastic Period, 25th-31st Dynasty, 715-332 BC Height: 21.5 cm Provenance: Collection of the Earls of Bessborough, Stansted Park, Hampshire/Sussex border
EGYPTIAN QUARTZITE RELIEF WITH OFFICIALS New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty. Ramesside period, c.1279–1210 BC Dimensions: 49 x 32 cm Provenance: Private collection Switzerland, acquired 1960s
EGYPTIAN PREDYNASTIC PAINTED POTTERY JAR Naqada II, Gerzean, 3700–3250 BC Dimensions: 10 x 14.5 cm Provenance: Collection of Ernest Seymour Thomas (d.1936), UK, acquired in the early 20th Century and thence by descent
HELLENISTIC BRONZE FIGURE OF A DWARF Alexandrian, c. 200–100 BC Height: 8.8 cm Provenance: Private collection UK (Mr. E), acquired prior to 1970
DIZYGOTICA TEXT BY TOM STUTTAFORD CATALOGUE EDITED BY SOPHIE HICKS DESIGNED BY CHRIS HALL, THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE ANTIQUITIES PHOTOGRAPHED BY RICHARD VALENCIA PRINTED BY GOMER PRESS, WALES
RUPERT WACE ANCIENT ART 19 CROWN PASSAGE ST JAMES’S LONDON SW1Y 6PP TEL: +44 (0)20 7495 1623 info@rupertwace.co.uk www.rupertwace.co.uk No part of this work may be reproduced without express written permission of Rupert Wace Ancient Art
ISBN 978–0–9575064–5–9
RUPERT WACE ANCIENT ART 2017