ca. 1860. Elongated silver knob, hand chased and engraved in the Renaissance Revival taste with four repeating caryatides panels alternating with four other ones with tiny 18 karat yellow gold standing knights. The panels are framed with decorative elements including scrolls, shells twisted columns and tiny half pearls and facetted rubies set in individual 18 karat yellow gold frames. The top has an en suite design centered by a large oval and facetted ruby, also set in a gold frame. Metal ferrule, H.- 1 1/4″” x 2 1/4″ O.L. 37 ½”

American, 1st quarter-20th century. Original oak “spear” tip horn, exhibition reproducer, and original turntable felt. 32″h. 16″w. 16″d., horn is 21.75″ diameter.

blue case mask featuring a protruding snout and floral ear, with a purple wool yarn ruff; the figure is dressed in a hide kilt, painted cotton fabric sash, and leather armbands with tin cones; height 11.75 in.
second quarter 20th century

Pre-Columbian, north coast of Peru, Sican / Lambayeque culture, ca. 10th to 11th century CE. A beautiful mask made of hammered copper, with two huge copper projections that rise, similar to horns but actually representing wings, from the top of the head. Fifteen trapezoidal copper sheet danglers hang from the “wings” and face. The eyes are bulbous, applied half-spheres, each with a wire with two discs spaced out along them projecting outward from the center of the eyes, a look that has been variously interpreted as tears or a magical/enhanced ability to see. The nose is large and three-dimensional, with two pointed, flat projections arising from underneath it, probably replicating nose ornaments. There is no mouth. Similar examples have cinnabar pigment applied to them, and this piece may once have had that too. White pigment covers much of the face, leaving the area around the eyes and below the nose a green copper patina color. Size: 25″ W x 15.5″ H (63.5 cm x 39.4 cm); 18.7″ H (47.5 cm) on included custom stand.

The “wings” widen at their terminals into openwork depictions of a lord with a curved headdress and either multiple arms or wings of his own. This is Naymlap, the traditional founder of the Lambayeque dynasty, who came from the south by sea and colonized the region before, it was said, sprouting wings and flying off into the sunset in a dramatic display of his magical powers. He seems to have been worshipped by his descendants, and silver and gold vessels, weapons, and jewelry are all adorned with his likeness.

This mask was made to adorn the body of a deceased elite member of the Sican society – gold and silver were reserved for royalty, and copper for the nobility. Sican elites were patrons of workshops that made fine metal objects like this one, and they took their wealth with them when they died. Buried in mounds, they would be entombed in high style. It is difficult to imagine just how much wealth each individual was buried with – for example, one of the few controlled excavations of a high status Sican tomb, archaeologists found 1.2 tons of grave goods inside of a 3 meter square shaft tomb that also contained a man, aged 40 to 50 alongside four sacrificial victims, two women and two children. This included vast quantities of gold, silver, and copper artifacts.

Classical World, Etruria, Late 5th to early 4th century BCE. A stunning Etruscan skyphos depicting an owl on one side and a laureate head of a woman on the obverse. Beneath the loop handles are lovely stylized palmettes with tendrils. The technique employed for the painted iconographic/decorative program was similar to Six’s technique used by Attic black-figure painters. This involved using layers of red or white pigment on the surface and incising details so that the black shows through. A Dutch scholar by the name of Jan Six first described this technique in 1888, hence the term Six technique. A fabulous example, as Etruscan owl skyphoi are exceptionally rare, and this combination of owl and female head motifs makes it even rarer. Size: 6.125″ W x 3.25″ H (15.6 cm x 8.3 cm)

Provenance: ex New York, New York collection; ex South German private collection, acquired in the 1950s; ex J.M.E. collection, New York, acquired in Munich, July 2006

Roman, Imperial Period, ca. 1st to 2nd century CE. Finely carved from white marble, a wonderful sculpture of Cupid (Greek Eros) holding a large bird against his chest. This iconography emerged during the Hellenistic period when sculptors introduced several charming representations of children or Erotes with their pet dogs or birds. This piece is remarkable for the sculptor’s ability to turn marble to both flesh and feathers as well as to convey the dynamic motion of Cupid, his cherubic body energetically twisting as he grasps the bird. Size: 11″ H (27.9 cm)

Sometimes the ancient artists captured a playful moment with the child embracing the pet with such a high degree of enthusiasm that he appears to almost suffocate the animal. Sometimes the pet’s resistance manifested in a struggle. For example, Pliny the Elder mentioned a sculpture of a child struggling a goose, the original by Boethos of Chalcedon, a Greek sculptor of the 2nd century BCE, in his Natural History (XXXIV, 84). The Boethos child became widely popular and was rendered several times by Roman sculptors. It also served as an inspirational source for multiple adaptations and variants of which the present piece is likely one.

The Boethos sculpture, known through the best copies displayed in the Capitoline Museum and the Munich Glyptothek, helps to reconstruct the composition of the fragmented Cupid. The child stands with his legs wide apart and the knees slightly bent; the body is thrown back and the head is turned toward the big bird trying to keep standing and away from the boy’s embrace. The Cupid represents exactly the same action only the smaller bird does not stand on the ground and is instead lifted in the Cupid’s arms.

The sculpture is very well modeled, the proportions and the round forms of child’s body are realistically rendered, and attention was brought to every detail: the naval, the fingers inter-space was drilled, and the feathers of different size of both bird’s and Cupid’s own wings were engraved. The carefully polished surface shines, and the marble captures the quality of the child’s healthy, glowing skin.

Such statuettes frequently populated the areas of recreation in a house or a villa; they have been found in the garden or in fountain arrangements. They also served as dedications to the gods related to the baby’s birth or health such as Aphrodite, Artemis, or Asklepios which is confirmed by the 3rd century BCE epigram of the poet Herodas (4. 30-31) who describes two women visiting the Asklepios sanctuary, watching and admiring the votive sculptures displayed in the precinct, the child with a goose among them.

Sources: BIEBER M., The Sculpture of the Hellenistic Age, New York, 1967, p. 81, fig. 285. RIDGWAY B. S., Hellenistic Sculpture I, The Styles of ca. 331-200 B. C., Madison, Wisconsin, 1990, p. 232. SMITH R. R. R., Hellenistic Sculpture, New York, 1991, p.136, fig. 170. On the representations of Eros and a bird, see: Lexicon Iconographicum Mythologiae Classicae (LIMC), vol. III, Zürich-Munchen, 1986, s.v. Eros, p. 871, nos. 205-219.

This piece is accompanied by Art Loss Register document – MA.FRA.016 – dated 11 August 2004 – signed by William Webber.

Moon and Half Dome, Yosemite National Park, California, 1960
Gelatin silver, printed later by Alan Ross
9-5/8 inches (24.3 cm)
Photographer’s ‘Special Edition’ stamp mount verso.

Di-Faced Tenner, 10 GBP Note (two works), 2005
Offset lithograph in colors on paper
3 x 5-5/8 inches (7.6 x 14.3 cm) (each)

United States,1963
Marvel Comics Tales of Suspense issue 39 from March, 1963. The book featured the origin and first appearance of Iron Man. CGC 4.5 w/ Cream/Off-White Pages
CGC case 12 3/4″ x 8″
Condition
Overall good condition.

A piece presented to the actress for “World Film / Favorite / of / 1959” by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association; small ‘Henrietta’ statuette now broken off the top of the globe.

9 by 3 by 3 inches