65 - A SMALL CORE-FORMED GLASS UNGUENT VESSEL, NEW KINGDOM, DYNASTY XVIII

A SMALL CORE-FORMED GLASS UNGUENT VESSEL, NEW KINGDOM, DYNASTY XVIII Egypt, c. 14th century BC. Skillfully crafted, the four-faceted body with rounded corners and gently tapering sides, rising through high-angled shoulders to a broad cylindrical neck with slightly curved sides and a narrow circular mouth. The surface is decorated with opaque white and yellow threads, drawn into a festoon pattern. Provenance: Bruno Cooper Works of Art, Norwich, United Kingdom, 2003. Collection of Paolo Bertuzzi, acquired from the above. A copy of the signed invoice from Bruno Cooper, dated 11 February 2003, addressed to Paolo Bertuzzi, confirming the attribution and dating above, and stating a purchase price for the present lot of GBP 4,500 or approx. EUR 9,800 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing), accompanies this lot. Morley ‘Bruno’ Cooper (d. 2012) Morley (Bruno) Cooper arrived in England from the USA in 1958 on a scholarship to Cambridge. After a successful academic career mostly at the University of East Anglia, he transformed what had been an absorbing hobby, dabbling in antiques, into a full career. Trading in the Suffolk town of Long Melford, he quickly established a reputation for the fine European furniture he stocked. Always restless, he eventually became bored the furniture market; he closed the shop, and, from then on, exhibited exclusively at international antique fairs where his reputation spread wider. His stock was characterized by his personal eclecticism; like a cabinet of curiosities. Towards the end of his life, his interests had focused increasingly on to Asia and Indian sculpture in particular. Paolo Bertuzzi (1943-2022) was a fashion stylist from Bologna. He was the son of Enrichetta Bertuzzi, founder of Hettabretz, a noted Italian fashion company with customers such as the Rothschild family, Audrey Hepburn, and Elizabeth Taylor. Paolo Bertuzzi later took over his mother’s business and designed exclusive pieces, some of which were exhibited in the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA. He was also an avid collector of antiques for more than sixty years. His collection includes both archaic and contemporary art, and he edited two important books about Asian art, Goa Made - An Archaeological Discovery, about a large-scale archaeological project carried out with the Italian and Indonesian governments, and Majapahit, Masterpieces from a Forgotten Kingdom. Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age, with old wear, expected manufacturing irregularities, extensive weathering, signs of prolonged burial, encrustations, and small chips. Weight: 37.5 g Dimensions: Height 7.1 cm A true color revolution took place in Egyptian glass production around the middle of the second millennium BC. Although the manufacture of faience, a glazed material particularly associated with a distinctive turquoise-blue color, had been mastered much earlier, glass does not appear to have been deliberately produced in Egypt before the Dynasty 18. Following the foreign campaigns of Thutmose III (ca. 1458–1438 BC), craftsmen adopted and further developed sophisticated techniques of polychrome glassmaking already established in Mesopotamia and Syria. Small glass vessels, such as the present example, consequently emerged as highly prized luxury objects. Auction result comparison: Type: Related Auction: Christie’s New York, 7 December 2011, lot 57 Price: USD 40,000 or approx. EUR 52,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Description: An Egyptian core-formed glass krateriskos, New Kingdom, Dynasty XVIII, circa 14th century BC Expert remark: Compare the related form and decorative style, with analogous marvered threads spiraling around the vessel. Note the similar size (8.4 cm). Auction result comparison: Type: Related Auction: Bonhams London, 24 October 2012, lot 180 Mid-Estimate: GBP 17,500 or approx. EUR 30,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing Description: An Egyptian core-formed glass kohl bottle, 18th Dynasty, 1550-1292 BC Expert remark: Compare the related form and decorative style, with analogous marvered threads spiraling around the vessel. Note the larger size (14.5 cm). Due to length restriction on Drouot this entry is shortened. For full description please visit www.zacke.at.