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Various Properties
Lot 30

An Egyptian black granite head of a Queen

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

Sold for £7,012.50 inc. premium

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An Egyptian black granite head of a Queen
Ptolemaic Period, circa 2nd-1st Century B.C.
Depicted wearing the vulture headdress, a fringe visible across the brow, the youthful face carved with full lips and plump cheeks, the eyes recessed for inlay, 10.2cm high

Footnotes

Provenance:
Private collection, France, acquired circa 1940.
French art market.
Anonymous sale; Bonhams, London, 28 April 2010, lot 46.
Mr A. collection, Paris.

Cf. a similar Royal portrait head in granite depicting Arsinoe II from the Greco-Roman Museum in Alexandria, acc. no. 18370 (S. Walker & P. Higgs, Cleopatra of Egypt, London, 2001, p. 166, no. 165). The Alexandrian head is identifiable as Arsinoe II due to her distinctive double uraeus. The above head also shares commonalities with a steatite statue of Cleopatra VII, including recessed eyes, plump cheeks, flared nose and full lips, ibid. p.163, no. 162. Another example of a Ptolemaic Queen portrayed with vulture headdress can be seen in a sculptor's model in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, acc. no. 22.275.

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