1¹⁄₈ in. (2.8 cm.) high

with The Brummer Gallery, New York.
Henry Walters (1848-1931), Baltimore and New York, acquired from the above; thence by descent to his wife, Sarah Wharton Green Walters (1859-1943), New York.
The Art Collection of the Late Mrs. Henry Walters, Parke-Bernet, New York, 30 November-4 December 1943, lot 518.
with The Brummer Gallery, New York, acquired from the above (Inv. N5819).
Part II of the Notable Art Collection Belonging to the Estate of the Late Joseph Brummer, Parke-Bernet, New York, 11-14 May 1949, lot 148.
Melvin Gutman (1886-1967), New York.
The Melvin Gutman Jewelry, Part III, Park-Bernet, New York, 5 December 1969, lot 68.

C. Parkhurst, et al., Melvin Gutman Collection of Ancient and Medieval Gold, Oberlin, 1961, no. 54.
R.S. Teitz, Masterpieces of Etruscan Art, Worcester, 1969, p. 97, no. 89, ill. p. 181.

Ohio, Oberlin College, Allen Memorial Art Museum, Melvin Gutman Collection of Ancient and Medieval Gold, 23 May 1961-23 May 1962.
Worcester Art Museum, Masterpieces of Etruscan Art, 21 April-4 June 1969.

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Lot Essay

The bust is formed of hammered sheet. Her hair is arranged in a top-knot. She is bejeweled in a diadem set with garnets and a now-missing central inlay, pearl drop earrings, and a crescentic pendant set with turquoise. Her hollowed eyes were perhaps once inlaid. She wears a mantle pinned at both shoulders by a circular brooch, also once inlaid.
Gold jewelry and ornaments similarly inlaid with garnet and turquoise are typical of finds from Bactria of the 1st century A.D., as evinced by the spectacular discoveries at Tillya Tepe (see V. Sarianidi, Bactrian Gold). The top-knot arrangement of the hair as seen here is similar to works like the Psyche-Aphrodite appliqué and on the Dionysus figures on a belt from the same site, nos. 60 and 107 in F. Hiebert and P. Cambon, eds, Afghanistan, Hidden Treasures from the National Museum, Kabul. The function of the bust presented here is enigmatic, as it lacks a suspension loop above the head or in the back, so cannot have served as a pendant. The two loops below may indicate that it was pinned in place as part of an elaborate diadem.