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Property from the Michel Holley Collection (lots 1-9)
Lot 2

A Cycladic marble beaker

Antiquities
1 December 2020, 11:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £8,925 inc. premium

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A Cycladic marble beaker
Early Cycladic I, circa 3200-2800 B.C.
The cylindrical body tapering to a flat base, with everted rounded rim and two vertical lugs, each with a single perforation, 15cm high

Footnotes

Provenance:
Michel Holley collection, Paris, acquired prior to 1973.

Such beakers with tapering sides and pierced lugs are a characteristic vessel shape of the Grotta-Pelos phase, Cycladic I; cf. an example from the Louvre, acc. no. MND 2005 (MA 35002), and reproduced in Greek Art of the Aegean Islands, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1980, p. 50, no. 6. Interestingly, there are two such beakers that were modified in antiquity to represent the human form, thereby suggesting a link between the well-known Cycladic statuettes and these beakers. For the Ashmolean example of the anthropomorphic beaker type see J. Thimme (ed.), Art and Culture of the Cyclades, Chicago, 1977, pp. 96-97, fig. 78.

Michel Holley (b. 1924) is a noted architect, and sailing enthusiast. M. Holley studied architecture at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, in the studio of Otello Zavaronia, and was elected Grand Massier in 1954. A keen member of the Royal Ocean Racing Club, M. Holley took part in the 1973 Cowes Admiralty Cup with the Izenah IV. His love of the nautical inspired his collection, which though drawn from the breadth of the Greek, Roman and Egyptian cultures, is bound by a fascination with seafaring. Formed in the early 1970s, this collection comes to auction for the first time.

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Bid now on these items

An Anatolian marble idol
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