Roman Bronze Mercury Statuette

1ST CENTURY A.D.

6 3/4 in. (778 grams total, 17.2 cm including stand).

The figure standing nude with right hand pressed against the hip, left arm bent and forearm extended; narrow chlamys worn across the shoulders and down the back terminating at the rear of the knees; the facial features modelled in some detail with slight oversized eyes, perhaps to accept a silver inlay; petasos to the head with vestigial lateral wings; mounted on a custom-made stand. [No Reserve]

Provenance

Acquired from Simon Shipp, circa 1997.
Believed to be published in an old Den of Antiquity catalogue.
From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.

Literature

Cf. Boucher, S. & Tassinari, S., Musée de la Civilisation Gallo-Romaine a Lyon: Bronzes Antiques I. Inscriptions, Statuaire, Vaisselle Lyon, 1976, items 47, 50, for type.

CONDITION

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LOT 0136