Our first post of 2022 is the last of our selection of fifty objects sold to museums over the past fifty years, marking the gallery’s fiftieth anniversary.
As we enter the new year it seems appropriate that this imposing limestone head, now in a Swiss museum, is looking forward, his gaze fixed straight ahead. Hopefully we too can look with equal confidence to a better time, where we are allowed to travel with greater ease and meet with our many friends, clients and colleagues.
Although TEFAF Maastricht in March has been postponed again, we are crossing our fingers for TEFAF New York in May.
Best wishes to all of you from all of us at Charles Ede. As John Lennon sang, let’s hope it’s a good one.
Cypriot head of a male
5th century BC
Limestone
Height 44.5cm
Very large head of a bearded male, of a style that either represents a king or a god. His hair is dressed in a fringe of tight locks beneath a laurel wreath, a long moustache falls over his beard of stylised hooked curls. Nose and lower part of beard restored.
A very imposing piece. It has been suggested that these large-scale heads might represent the Achaemenid rulers of Cyprus, certainly the treatment of the hair is very reminiscent of Persian work of the period.
Provenance:
Possibly the Cesnola Collection
Private collection, USA; acquired 1985
Private collection, New York, USA
Published:
Christie's, London, UK, Fine Antiquities, 28th November 1979, lot 83
Sotheby's, New York, USA, Antiquities and islamic Art, 8th-9th February 1985, lot 73
