ART FROM ANTIQUITY OFFERED BY RUPERT WACE

Friday, 23 November 2007 23:16

New York City - Many wonders from the ancient world will be exhibited by Rupert Wace Ancient Art, one of London’s leading dealers in antiquities, at the 54^th annual Winter Antiques Show taking place at Seventh Regiment Armory, Park Avenue at 67^th Street, New York, from 18 to 27 January 2008.

Visitors to the Fair will be attracted by a wide variety of pieces from ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, as well as early Northern Europe including Viking artefacts. Antiquities are increasingly popular with younger collectors who are discovering that they not only add an intriguing counterpoint to modern interiors but are also affordable, with prices ranging from US$2,000 to US$500,000. Collectors are sometimes surprised that jewellery from ancient times is still wearable and can be acquired for a relatively modest outlay.

In ancient Egypt almost every tomb was provided with a low stone offering table, often, as with the Rupert Wace example, incorporating the hieroglyphic form of a loaf of bread on a rolled mat, a general symbol for the term ‘offering’. The surface is carved in low relief with an elaborate offering scene including depictions not only of three round loaves but also three vessels, a bovine head, a haunch of beef, a duck or goose, a bunch of lotus flowers, a bird’s head and a fruit, all on a reed mat. Dating from the Ptolemaic Period, 332-30 BC, this table comes from a private German collection.

The Egyptian bronze statuette of Sekhmet to be shown in New York dates from the Late Dynastic Period, 664-332 BC, and was formerly in the Hans Bayerlein collection in Germany. Sekhmet, daughter of the ancient sun god Ra or Re, was the lioness-headed goddess of war and destruction. To appease the goddess, priests were required to perform a ritual before a different statue of her, morning and evening, every day of the year, and festivals were held in her honor at the end of battle to prevent further destruction.

Ushabtis were placed in Egyptian tombs to work for the deceased in the next world. The earlier of the two examples to be exhibited dates from the New Kingdom, early 19^th Dynasty, circa 1295-1213 BC, and was formerly in the collection of the English artist Henry Wallis (1830-1916). The limestone figure, in mummiform pose, stands 21.6 cm high. The crossed hands carry two hoes and red painted seed bags hang at the waist indicating work in the fields while the later figure, dating from the Late Dynastic Period, 26^th Dynasty, circa 570-526 BC, holds a hoe in one hand, a flail in the left and his seed bag is carried over his shoulder. The latter example is made in unusually brilliant blue faience and came from the tomb of an important official, Psammtik born of Saba-rekhyet, which was discovered by Bedouins early in the 20^th century. The coffin is now in Grenoble and this ushabti figure was formerly in a private French collection and later in a private collection in New York.

The ibis was a sacred bird to the Egyptians who considered it to be an animal manifestation of the ancient god Thoth, the god of wisdom and knowledge. Rupert Wace will be showing a model in bronze and wood dating from the Late Dynastic Period, 664-332 BC. This species of ibis is no longer extant in Egypt although not because of the huge numbers in which it was embalmed during the Late Period. Millions of ibis were bred purely to be mummified as offerings to Thoth and also to Imhotep, the architect of the Step Pyramid of Djoser, later deified as wise man and sage. Wealthy pious pilgrims would arrange for the mummified ibis to be placed inside a coffin surmounted by a figure of the sacred bird.

A Sabaean limestone figure of an ibex from the South Arabian kingdom of Saba, the biblical Sheba in modern-day Yemen, dates from the 1^st century BC-1^st century AD and was formerly in a private Belgian collection. The animal stands on an L-shaped base, its body supported on four short legs with cleft hooves, and the horns rise from the bearded head and curve over the back in a dramatic spiral.

Among the ancient Greek pieces to be shown is an exceptional Attic terracotta red figure squat lekythos, a form of pottery jar probably used for storing perfumed oil. One of few vases attributed to the Athenian painter Polion, 430-410 BC, it depicts an excited satyr about to take advantage of a drunken sleeping maenad. The anticipation and sexual intent are captured so delicately and with such artistic skill that it belies the carnal nature of the inevitable.

There will be bronze, marble and mosaic Roman pieces on Rupert Wace’s stand, including a marble fragment of Aphrodite and a bronze skin of a lion’s head both dating from the 1^st-2^nd century AD, and a delicately carved marble head of Hermes, circa 2^nd century AD. A beautiful mosaic fragment dating from around the 3^rd century AD depicts a bear leaping from stylized foliage, flowers and tendrils in red, green, yellow and white tesserae against a black background. It was probably part of the border of a large floor mosaic and was formerly in a private collection in New York.

Rupert Wace has been dealing in antiquities for over 30 years, opening his own business in 1988. He has handled the private sales of antiquities from the British Rail Pension Fund and his clients include the British Museum, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, the National Museum of Wales, the Musée du Louvre in Paris, Staatliche Museum in Munich, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts and the Cleveland Museum of Art. As well as being a member of the International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art, Rupert Wace is Chairman of the Antiquities Dealers Association in the UK, both of which rigorously uphold the ethics of dealing in ancient art. www.rupertwace.co.uk

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Event: Winter Antiques Show www.winterantiquesshow.com
Dates: 18 to 27 January 2008
Venue: Seventh Regiment Armory, Park Avenue at 67th Street, New York City
Opening Hours: Daily: 12 noon to 8.00 pm; Sundays and Thursday: 12 noon to 6.00 pm
Admission: $20, including Fair catalogue