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Lot 105

A Roman bronze seated Mercury

Antiquities
28 November 2017, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £12,500 inc. premium

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A Roman bronze seated Mercury
Circa 1st Century A.D.
The nude god depicted atop a separately-made rocky outcrop, his head turned to the left with incised hair, the eyes once inlaid, wearing his characteristic winged petasos and winged sandals, a money-bag in the proper left hand, his right hand raised holding a now-missing attribute, 16.5cm high

Footnotes

Provenance:
Private collection, UK, acquired in the 1970s.
On loan to the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg from 1981 onwards.

See D. G. Mitten & S. F. Doeringer, Master Bronzes from the Classical World, Mainz on Rhine, 1968, no. 249 for a similar example from the Römerhaus und Museum Augst, Switzerland (A 1757). This composition, dating to the early Roman imperial period, was inspired by a now-lost 4th Century B.C. work by Lysippos; the most famous surviving example is that which was discovered in the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneaum in 1758 (now in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli).

Accompanied by a metallurgy report conducted by the Royal Armouries, London in 1994.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

An Anatolian marble idol
A Mesopotamian clay cuneiform foundation cone with dedication inscription of King Lipit-Ishtar of Isin
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A large Etruscan Impasto Ware pottery olla
A Roman marble torso of a youth wearing a tunic
A Roman marble head of a satyr
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