Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art
Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art
Property from the Estate of Jan Mitchell
A PAIR OF HELLENISTIC GOLD DISK-AND-PENDANT EARRINGS, CIRCA 2ND HALF OF THE 3RD CENTURY B.C.
Auction Closed
July 2, 04:42 PM GMT
Estimate
15,000 - 25,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from the Estate of Jan Mitchell
A PAIR OF HELLENISTIC GOLD DISK-AND-PENDANT EARRINGS, CIRCA 2ND HALF OF THE 3RD CENTURY B.C.
decorated with filigree and finely chased detail, the disks each surmounted by a palmette and ornamented within a beaded wire border with two superimposed rosettes of eight and seven petals centering a granulation bead, the pendants each in the form of young Eros standing on a low flanged podium with the right leg advanced and wings spread, and holding a scallop shell and papyrus scroll, their plump lively faces with large eyes with indented pupils.
Lengths 5.6 cm.
Jan Mitchell (1913-2009), New York, probably acquired in the 1960s or earlier
by descent to the present owner
For three pairs and one single example of very similar earrings see M. M. Jackson, Hellenistic Gold Eros Jewellery: Technique, style, and chronology, 2006, p. 163, pl. 14B, 1-4. The first pair (Ars Antiqua, Lucerne, November 7th, 1964, no. 148), present whereabouts unknown, was formerly in the Guilhou and Ruesch collections; the second pair is in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, inv. 57.1498-9, acquired from Michel Abemayor, Cairo, 1929; the third single earring, in 2006 in a German private collection, was formerly in the Schiller Collection, Berlin-Schöneberg, said to be from Alexandria, and sold at Lepkes, Berlin, in 1929; the last pair is in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, inv. GR 9o.1931.