Lot 41
  • 41

A Bronze Clasp, Italo-Celtic, 4th Century B.C.

Estimate
6,000 - 9,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • A Bronze Clasp, Italo-Celtic
  • Bronze
  • Length 4 1/8 in. 10.5 cm.
of zoomorphic form with finely engraved insect's wings, stepped spirals behind the fluted neck, and equine head with protruding tongue forming the hook.

Provenance

said to have been found in Germany near the north shore of the Bodensee
Jay C. Leff, Uniontown, Pennsylvania (Sotheby's, New York, November 20th-21st, 1975, no. 635, illus.)
Sotheby's, London, July 8th, 1993, no. 281, pl. XXXIV

Exhibited

"Exotic Art from Ancient and Primitive Civilizations. Collection of Jay C. Leff," exhibition at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, October 1959 - January, 1960
Archer M. Huntington Art Gallery, Austin, Texas, 1981-1988
San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, Texas, 1988-1990

Literature

Exotic Art from Ancient and Primitive Civilizations. Collection of Jay C. Leff, catalogue of the exhibition at the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1959, no. 63
Ariadne Galleries, New York, Treasures from the Eurasian Steppes: Animal Art from 800 B.C. to 200 A.D., March-April, 1998

Catalogue Note

This clasp would have probably fastened a bronze girdle or belt sewn to a leather backing. Cf. S. Boucher, Bronzes grecs, hellénistiques et étrusques, Lyon, 1970, nos. 113, 114, and 120, and D.G. Mitten and S. F. Doeringer, Master Bronzes from the Classical World, Mainz am Rhein, 1967, no. 202.