Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art
Ancient Sculpture and Works of Art
Property from an English Private Collection
A Roman Marble Figure of a Woman, circa 2nd Century A.D.
Lot Closed
July 6, 01:39 PM GMT
Estimate
20,000 - 30,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
Property from an English Private Collection
A Roman Marble Figure of a Woman
circa 2nd Century A.D.
standing with the weight on her left leg, wearing a chiton girdled beneath the breasts, and a himation draped over the left shoulder and around the lower body, the right arm bent at the elbow and wrapped in a fold of the himation, remains of a strut on the right upper arm; former restorations removed.
Total height with modern base 165.5 cm.; height without modern base 157.5 cm.; height without plinth 145.5 cm.
Augustus Joel Walker (1868-1965), Knotmead, Stratfield-Mortimer, Berkshire, by the early 20th Century.
The style of the carving suggests a funerary portrait statue. For the draping of the himation see http://arachne.uni-koeln.de/item/objekt/30649.
Local lore has it that Augustus Walker had a member of staff of the British Museum come to see the statue, “with a view of finding the head”. Walker was a picture dealer whose gallery was located at 118 Bond Street in London. It is unclear whether he was responsible for bringing the statue to Knotmead, or if a previous owner had done so before he bought the house circa 1916. In 1881, the house is known to have been occupied by Frances (Fanny) Wylde, daughter of the Rev. William Thomas Wylde, Rector of Woodborough, Wiltshire, and his second wife the Honourable Elizabeth Pleydell Bouverie, granddaughter of the 2nd Earl of Radnor.