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LOT 0116

Sold for (Inc. bp): £6,500

CYPRIOT GOLD BULL-HEADED PENDANT PAIR
7TH CENTURY B.C.
7/8 in. (5.39 grams total, 23-24 mm).

Matched pair of hollow-formed pendants, each a bull's head modelled in the round with a rosette to the rear beneath the loop. [2]

PROVENANCE:
Acquired in 1986.
with Taisei Gallery, Gold & Silver Auction, Part II, Ancient to Renaissance, 5 November 1992, The Conrad Salon, The Waldorf-Astoria, New York, no.165.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11969-210472.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

LITERATURE:
Cf. Torn Broers, P., ‘A Late Bronze Age Gold Bull Head Pendant from Tel Dor’ in Davidovich, U., Yahalom-Mack, Matskevich, S., Agypten und Altes Testament, 110, Material, Method and Meaning, Papers in Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology in Honor of Ilan Sharon, Münster, 2022, pl.10.1, for a similar bull head.

FOOTNOTES:
In Cyprus, the cult of the bull developed from the 3rd millennium B.C. until the 6th century B.C. The bull was a 'frequently invoked manifestation of divinity', and its cult was widespread since the Minoan Age. The appearance of gold bull-head pendants in tombs had an aesthetic and social value, but at the same time it also had a deeper symbolic and religious meaning.

CONDITION
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