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LOT 1803
Ethiopian Stamp Seal with King
20TH CENTURY A.D.
4 1/2 in. (138 grams, 11.5 cm high).
The figure with stylised face, the head surmounted by a high crown worn around a cap, possibly depicting a bishop or a king; the body closed within a cloak fastened at the front, a profile portrait to base for use as a seal impression. [No Reserve]
ProvenanceCollected since the 1970s.
Ex Everitt collection, acquired by descent 2017.
Cf. Dubois, J., Roots and Flowerings of Ethiopia’s Traditional Crafts, Addis Ababa, 2008, p.20, for similar carved statuettes.
FootnotesThe small statuette comes probably from the area of Axum, the cradle of Ethiopian Christian civilisation and the place where the tabot of Zion (Ark of the Covenant) is believed to be hidden, containing the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments God gave Moses. The statuette represents probably a king (possibly King Solomon, ancestor of the Ethiopian Royal Dynasty) or an Ethiopian priest dressed with the crown (Akil) and the Holy Liturgy cloak(qaba).
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AUCTIONS:
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Opening Bid: £40
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The tile production increased in the second half of the 16th century and during the following centuries. The fragments discovered from various localities (pot-tiles, rectangular, triangular and trapezoidal panels, open-work crest tiles) were all produced in regional workshops, from the end of the 15th century or at the beginning of the 16th century. They all had diverse decorative motifs, mainly animals and geometrical or vegetal combinations, almost all of them singular finds for this study area. -
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