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LOT 0060
Greek Bronze Hephaistos Statuette
CIRCA 5TH CENTURY B.C.
5 1/4 in. (294 grams total, 13.5 cm high including stand).
The elegant figure depicting the Greek god of fire and metalworking seated and nude except for the pilos on his head, lean body with naturalistic detailing, shown bearded and with curly hair emerging beneath the cap; he would have once held a pair of tongs in his left hand and a hammer in his right hand; accompanied by a custom-made display stand.
Provenancewith Elie Borowski, Basel.
Subsequently in the collection of Denys Sutton (1917-1991), London, acquired from the above on 11 October 1963.
Thence by descent.
with Sotheby's, New York, 6 December 2012, lot 11.
Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no. 11827-207739.
See Reinach, S., Repertoire de la statuarie grecque et romaine, Paris, 1930, pp.39-40, for the Hephaistos iconography; Hensly, C., ‘Proceed to Olympus: the iconography of the Return of Hephaestus’ in Undergraduate Research Awards. 14, Hollins, 2013, fig.5.
FootnotesAccording to legend, Hephaistos was thrown into the ocean by his mother Hera and raised by the sea nymph Thetis. Upon his return to Olympus, he took his revenge by imprisoning his mother and obtaining the hand of the most beautiful of the goddesses, Aphrodite. He became the blacksmith of the gods. Sculptural depictions of the god, known as Vulcan to the Romans, are very rare. Hephaistos was the armourer of the heroes, and certainly his greatest artwork was making Achilles' armour.
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LOT 0060
Greek Bronze Hephaistos Statuette
Estimate £20,000 - 30,000€23,200 - 34,800 (for guidance only)$27,000 - 40,500 (for guidance only)
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South Italian Blackware Kantharos with Ivy Branch
5th-4th century B.C.Estimate: £1,500 - 2,000 (‡+bp*)
Opening Bid: £750
The high-handled drinking cup with carinated lower body, discoid feet and vines painted to the equator. 525 grams, 22.2 cm
Acquired in the late-1980. Ex S.A. collection. -
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Etruscan Blackware Impasto Vase
8th-7th century B.C.Estimate: £1,000 - 1,400 (‡+bp*)
Opening Bid: £500
Biconical with a tapering cylindrical neck and two handles, raised ribbing around the shoulder. 550 grams, 15 cm wide
Ex private Mister X. (1931-2017) collection. Sold in the benefit of the 'Croix-Rouge of Monaco'. -
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Greek Red-Figure Fragment with Athletes Attributed to the Euaion Painter
Circa 460 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £3,900
From a kylix, the inside painted with two young naked athletes within a medallion, conversing and cleaning their bodies with a strigil, the edge of the medallion decorated with a series of meanders and four crosses; the outside with two naked athletes and other figures, divided by foliage ornaments and volutes. 121 grams, 15.2 cm
Acquired in before 2005. Private collection, Europe. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.11805-206818.
The Euaion painter was a prolific artist of about 460 B.C. His painting - already in the manneristic period of the Attic red figures vases - was more nearly classical in style, although the ancestry of his small-headed, slim figures, is very evident. He introduced a high, sometimes patterned ground line for an upright two-figure group, and preferred the old elaborately patterned borders for tondos and the ground lines outside cups.
