1 / 2

Description

Scythian Mirror with Crouching Stag. 5th-4th century B.C. Discoid body with raised rim; ribbed column-like handle with a kneeling stag above, supporting the mirror with its large antlers. 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. 570 grams, 31.5 cm (12 3/8 in.). 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). 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.

58 
Go to lot
<
>

Scythian Mirror with Crouching Stag. 5th-4th century B.C. Discoid body with raised rim; ribbed column-like handle with a kneeling stag above, supporting the mirror with its large antlers. 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. 570 grams, 31.5 cm (12 3/8 in.). 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). 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.

Estimate 2 000 - 3 000 GBP
Starting price 1 800 GBP

* Not including buyer’s premium.
Please read the conditions of sale for more information.

Sale fees: 35 %
Leave an absentee bid

For sale on Tuesday 03 Sep - 12:00 (BST)
londres, United Kingdom
TimeLine Auctions
+441277814121
Browse the catalogue Sales terms Sale info

You may also like

Scythian Bronze Zoomorphic Openwork Horse Chamfron. 4th century B.C. The edges formed of opposed curving serpent heads, each pair flanking a central zoomorphic head, possibly representing a horse or a beast; the animals with incised detailing to their bodies and heads; a large horse(?) head to the lower edge with its muzzle forming the point of the chamfron; two loops to the reverse. Cf. similar elements in Melyukova, A.I., Stepi evrope?skoy chasti SSSR v skifo-sarmatskoe vremya (Steppes of the European part of the USSR in the Scythian-Sarmatian Period, in Russian), Moscow, 1989; Leskov, A.M., Grabschätze der Adygeen, Munich, 1990; Galanina, L.K., Die Kurgane von Kelermes:“Königsgräber” der frühskythischen Zeit, Moscow, 1997; Kantorovich, A.R., Erlich, V.R., Bronze Molding Art from Adygeian Kurgans, VIII-III centuries B.C., Moscow, 2006, cat.103,105,122; Galanina, L.K., ‘Horse equipment from the collection of Elizabethan antiquities stored in the State Hermitage (excavations of N.I. Veselovsky in years 1914, 1915, 1917, in Russian)’ in ????. ???.38. ?????-?????????: ??????????????? ???????, Saint Petersburg, 2010, pp.107-122. 283 grams, 39.5 cm (15 1/2 in.). Bronze open-worked frontlets like this one were found with horses in the Barrow-mound no.5 of the Ulyap burial-ground in the Kuban basin, and their secure dating to the 4th century B.C. was established by the Thasian amphoras found in the respective graves (nn. 14-15-21, see Leskov, 1990, figs.180,183). The incised decoration of the chamfron finds various parallels both on frontlets from Barrow-Mounds nos. 4/1913 and 4/1917 near Elizavetinskaya Kossack-Village, in Kuban Basin, and from Gyuenos in Abkhazia (Galanina, 2010, pl.7,12). The piece belongs to a rare type of chamfron, known only from finds in the Scythian and Meotian burials of 5th-4th centuries B.C. From the Gorovits family collection, since at least the 1940s. 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 number no. 17178-221462. [A video of this lot is available to view on Timeline Auctions Website]