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LOT 0036
Minoan Bronze Statuette of a Lady
MIDDLE PERIOD, CIRCA 1700-1450 B.C.
6 1/2 in. (499 grams total, 16.5 cm high including stand).
With a small, stylised face with detailed eyes, nose and mouth; right hand raised to hold a child; wearing a flounced skirt with double belt; mounted on a custom-made display stand. [No Reserve]
ProvenanceBritish private collection, acquired by 2000.
From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000.
From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.
See Comstock, M., Vermeule C., Greek, Etruscan & Roman Bronzes in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, New York, 1971, p.4, no.1, for similar.
FootnotesIn the Dictean Cave in Greece, many votive statuettes of this type were found. The flounced skirt is characteristic of Minoan women's dress, and it was lavishly decorated in folds of different colours. It could be worn with or without a narrow corselet, but in both cases exposing the breast. The exposed breast was connected to the cult of the mother goddess, and fertility, an element here reinforced by the presence of the suckling child.
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AUCTIONS:
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Greek Painted Terracotta Juglet
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Archaic Greek Gold Bead Group
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Matched pair of hollow-formed globe beads with surface of domes each with a granule cluster finial. 12.36 grams total, 31 mm each
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Greek Bronze Patrix Die
5th-3rd century B.C.Estimate: £500 - 700 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £250
Mummiform in plan with deep concave sidewall and ellipsoidal base, the upper face engraved with a standing female figure wearing a full-length garment with textured pleats and head covering. 238 grams, 71 mm
Collected from 1970-1999. From the collection of the late Mr S.M., London, UK. Accompanied by a previous catalogue information card.
The woman is apparently cupping her right breast with her right hand. The gesture and the stylised facial features of the woman refer to a Greek-oriental environment, almost a Phoenician production in a Hellenizing style. The object was likely for repoussé work.