LOT 0382

Bronze Aquamanile with Horse and Rider

EARLY 19TH CENTURY A.D.

12 in. (5.6 kg, 30.5 cm high).

A bronze aquamanile portraying a mounted rider, both horse and rider modelled in the round with semi-naturalistic anatomical and facial features; the horse standing facing forwards, ears pinned back and with short tail; the male figure positioned with one hand on the reins, the other raised to eye level, wearing period costume and boots; rectangular vessel mouth behind horse's forelock with remains of hinge for a lid (absent), conical pouring spout to its lower chest; some splits; modelled on c.15th century German examples.

Acquired from St Marys Convent, Peekshill, New York.
From Emily Gagnon, Dallas, USA.
UK private collection, 2002.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.11686-197726

Williamson, P., Wyvern Collection 'Medieval Sculpture', Thames and Hudson, 2018, p.361, cat.187.

Cf. The Metropolitan Museum, New York, accession number 47.101.54, for a similar 15th century A.D. example from Germany.

The practical function of the aquamanile was to pour clean water over the hands before dining, and in religious contexts to symbolically purify the body before undertaking communion. The origins of the form are often traced to the area of Iran, and it reached Western Europe through contacts with the Byzantine Empire.