Anna Marston
Associate Specialist
Lot 1*
Three Anatolian marble idols 3
6 July 2023, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £10,880 inc. premium
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Siobhan Quin
Senior Specialist
Francesca Hickin
Head of Department
Three Anatolian marble idols
Kusura-Beyecesultan Type, Early Bonze Age II, circa 2700-2300 B.C.
5.4-7.3cm high (3)
Kusura-Beyecesultan Type, Early Bonze Age II, circa 2700-2300 B.C.
5.4-7.3cm high (3)
Footnotes
Provenance:
with Gallery Serodine, Ascona, who stated the two larger ones were originally found together.
Private collection, Switzerland, acquired from the above at TEFAF Basel, 6 November 1996, nos.6-8.
For other Kusura-Beycesultan type abstract-schematic idols of slightly larger proportions, see J. Thimme, Art and Culture of the Cyclades, Chicago, 1977, p.386 and 560-561, nos. 513 and 515. Thimme suggests that the 'horn' head projection could represent a "bound tuft of hair or possibly the attachment for a mask" (p. 560).
Figures such as these could have had multiple functions, ranging from a substitute body, votive objects, or funerary gifts, to either protect the deceased or 'to mediate between the deceased and the deities (p.35)." For further discussion on the function of Anatolian idols see, D. Jansen-Buis and P. Venema, 'A Small Collection of Anatolian Stone and Terracotta Figurines of the Early Bronze Age in Amsterdam', Anatolica, No. XII, 1985, pp. 29-42.