LOT 0089

Greek Bronze Patera Handle in the form of a Naked Youth

5TH CENTURY B.C.

6 3/4 in. (9 1/4 in.) (178 grams total, handle: 17.3 cm high, 23.5 cm high including stand).

Formed as a nude kouros, hands raised to touch the elaborate palmette sitting atop the boy's head, his face framed by a thick fringe, his hair, held by a band, falling down his back in serpentine waves; the figure standing with legs held close together, broken at mid-shin; a palmette-shaped fixing plate projecting at the back with two holes for rivets to attach to the broad, shallow dish which would have been used for libations.

Private collection UK (N.E.), acquired prior to 1970, and thence by descent.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.13550-263433.

For a complete patera with a similar handle, see Mitten, D.G., Doeringer, S.F., Master Bronzes from the Classical World, Cambridge, 1967, pp. 82-83, no.76; see also the exhibition catalogue 'Master Bronzes from the Classical World', Fogg Art Museum, USA, 1968, no.76; 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; 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.

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.