CLASSICAL PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 5TH CENTURY B.C.

Name: A GREEK CREAM ONYX SCARABOID WITH A SEATED WOMAN
Brand: CLASSICAL PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 5TH CENTURY B.C.
Price: 20000.00 USD
Availability: SoldOut

Price Realised USD 25,200

Estimate

USD 5,000 - USD 7,000

Closed: 14 Apr 2022

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A GREEK CREAM ONYX SCARABOID WITH A SEATED WOMAN

CLASSICAL PERIOD, CIRCA LATE 5TH CENTURY B.C.

Price Realised USD 25,200

Closed: 14 Apr 2022

Price Realised USD 25,200

Closed: 14 Apr 2022

Details Lot Essay Related Articles More from

⁷⁄₈ in. (2.3 cm.) long

Private Collection, France (Dr. B and M.C.).
Objets Antiques: Marbres, orfèvrerie, verrerie, céramique, bronzes, ivoires, Collection du Dr. B. et de M.C., Me. Lair Dubreuil, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 19-21 May 1910, lot 300.
Paul Julius Arndt (1865-1937), Munich (Inv. no 1483; impression of gem preserved in In Memoriam: Collezione Paul Arndt).
Giorgio Sangiorgi (1886-1965), Rome, acquired and brought to Switzerland, late 1930s; thence by continuous descent to the current owner.

J. Boardman, Greek Gems and Finger Rings, London, 1970, pp. 197, 283, fig. 202, p. 426. no. 69.
H.C.L. Wiegandt, Die griechischen Siegel der klassischen Zeit: Ikonographischer Vergleich, Frankfurt am Main, 2009, p. 202, no. Bbb5, pl. XXXII.
J. Boardman and C. Wagner, Masterpieces in Miniature: Engraved Gems from Prehistory to the Present, London, 2018, p. 53, no. 45.

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Lot Essay

Noteworthy for its swirling and circular black inclusions, this unusual stone features a woman seated on a diphros juggling. She is balancing a ball on the back of her hand, while a second ball floats high in front of her head. The woman is nude but for a himation draped around her legs, and the scene is enclosed within a hatched border. For the subject and style, compare the Nike similarly occupied on a coin minted circa 430 B.C. at Terina on the western coast of Calabria, no. 711 in C.M. Kraay, . The subject was also popular on Attic vases (see for example the red-figured lekythos in the National Museum, Athens, pl. VIb in S.P. Karouzou, “Vases from Odos Pandrosou,” 65). Karouzou suggests that the balls in question were made of thread or wool.