LOT 0058

Scythian Mirror with Crouching Stag

5TH-4TH CENTURY B.C.

12 3/8 in. (570 grams, 31.5 cm).

Discoid body with raised rim; ribbed column-like handle with a kneeling stag above, supporting the mirror with its large antlers.

Mr M.B., Mainz, Germany, since the 1960s.
Acquired from the above, 2007.
Private collection, London.

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.12182-221464.

Cf. Loehr, M., ‘The Stag Image in Schythia and the Far East’ in Archives of the Chinese Art Society of America, Vol. 9 (1955), pp. 63-76; Trofimova, A., Greeks on the Black Sea: Ancient Art from the Hermitage, J. Paul Getty Museum, 2007, item 29j; see also Leypunskaya, N. A., Olbian-Scythian Trade: Exchange Issues in the Sixth to Fourth Centuries BC, Oxford, 2007.

Bronze mirrors of this type with zoomorphic handles, were widespread in the Scythian archaeology of the Northern Black Sea Region, Northern Caucasus and Carpathian Basin. Handles were often decorated with sculptured depictions of rams, feline predators or deer (stag). The similarity with Scythian art is clearly visible by comparing the stag of our mirror with the stags from the Scythian steppe culture (Loehr, 1955, figs.5,6,10,13-21).