LOT 0107

Greek Bronze Kouros Patera Handle with Bowl

ARCHAIC, CIRCA 480 B.C.

17 7/8 in. (1.35 kg total, 45.5 cm high including stand).

The handle formed as a nude youth supporting a panel of double volutes and half-palmettes, long braided hair falling at the back of the neck and on his forehead; the legs joined and ankles extended, the feet enclosed in pointed shoes, palmette below; accompanied by the bowl with inverted rim, a pair of parallel lines to the outer rim; the handle and part of the rim detached and mounted separately on the custom-made display stand.

with Herbert A. Cahn, Basel, 1990s.

Accompanied by a copy of an Art Loss Register certificate no.S00075168.
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 no.12462-228709.

See Mitten, D.G., & Doeringer, S.F., Master Bronzes of the Classical World, New York, 1968, pp.51-52, figs.46,77; Kunze, M., Meisterwerke Antiker Bronzen und Metallarbeiten aus der Sammlung Borowski, Bd. 1, Griechische und romische Bronzen, Mainz, 2007, p.118, fig.46; cf. a similar patera handle in the Metropolitan Museum, accession number 2005.457; for another similar handle but with a female see the Metropolitan Museum of Art, accession no.46.11.6; Berlin, Antiken-Sammlung, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, inv. M.I.10.162, for a further bronze patera handle in the form of a youth, in Various, Small Bronze Sculpture from the Ancient World, Malibu, 1990, fig.3, p.88.

Anthropomorphic handles with images of young naked boys connected with animals were widespread and used for mirrors. The object, in particular, is part of the group of mirrors and paterae with standing youths (male and female, probably symbolising athletes) and nude female mirror caryatids (Mitten-Doeringer, 1968, figs.87-88) serving as vertical handles.