Hechizoo Animal Sculptures

Midcentury collection of animals rendered in carved travertine designed by Flli Mannelli for Raymor, Italy, 1960s,

A large and exceptional Lalique art glass figure of a Jaguar cat in clear and frosted glass dating from 1999. The prowling Jaguar has moulded markings to its body with a etched signa...

The ancient city of Ephesus, which dates back to 6000 BC, has been a coastal city belonging to the Romans, Greeks and Turks at different times. The city is known as the place where C...

South Arabian Alabaster Inscription Calcite Alabaster circa 1st century A.D. ‘’Consequently, neither white marble of Paros nor any other stone which men admire can be compared with the precious stones of Arabia, since their whiteness is most brilliant, their weight the heaviest, and their smoothness leaves no room for other stones to surpass them.’’ - Diodorus Siculus, Library of History, Book II, 52.9 This inscription, finely worked on an alabaster tablet, is a remarkably well preserved example of Ancient South Arabian script, with its distinct bold, angular forms, written in the Qatabanic dialect - that is, the dialect spoken by the people of the kingdom of Qataban, which ruled much of modern day Yemen from the 7th Century B.C. to the 2nd Century A.D. The text, which reads: ‘[... ...]sa?d and Ma?add?i- / (of the lineage) of Hawfa- / She entrusted Anb- / against any malfeasance (which would remove it) from its place’ - indicates that it likely served to commemorate a temple offering. The quality of the script, incised so neatly into the surface of the alabaster, tells us that this piece was commissioned by somebody of considerable wealth and prestige, employing a scribe of equally considerable expertise. South Arabia was known throughout the ancient world for its incredible wealth - so much so that the Romans termed the region ‘Arabia Felix’ - literally, ‘Happy, or Fortunate, Arabia.’ That wealth was built largely on the trade of spices and incense, in which the Kingdom of Qataban played a major part. According to Pliny the Elder, this was the sole country through which frankincense could be exported, first being collected in the city of Shabwa, on the South Arabian coast, and from there travelling by camel up to Gaza, to be shipped all across the Mediterranean - not only that, but all growers of myrrh across Arabia were required to give a quarter of their yield to the king of the Qatabanians. As such, the kingdom became exceedingly rich and powerful, and Pliny goes on to tell us that ‘The nations of the Larendani and the Catabani, and the Gebanitæ [...] occupy a great number of towns, the largest of which are Nagia, and Thomna (the capital of Qataban) with sixty-five temples, a number which fully bespeaks its size.’ Because of the nature of its exports, frankincense in particular - the ‘sweat of of the gods’ according to the Egyptian Book of the Dead, and perhaps most famous as one of the three gifts brought to the newborn Christ - being closely associated with the divine, South Arabia’s reputation in antiquity was as a mysterious, almost sacred, and - crucially - extraordinarily wealthy region, at the very edge of the known world; in the words of Herodotus: ‘’Enough of marvels, and yet the land of Arabia gives off a scent as sweet as if divine.’’ This inscription invokes the protection of god Anbay, the judge-oracle of the chief god ‘Amm, who he served as an attendant. Much of what we know of the religious life of the ancient South Arabians comes to us from early Islamic texts, describing what is known in Islamic scholarship as ‘Jahiliyyah’ - the age before the advent of Islam in Arabia. What comes across in much of these texts is that these religious practices placed a great deal of emphasis on sacred stones, perhaps linked to the brilliance of the alabaster which is local to the region, and which a great many of the cult-objects produced in this time are made from. Hisham ibn-Al-Kalbi’s Book of Idols records: ‘’The Arabs were passionately fond of worshipping idols [...] Whenever a traveller stopped at a place or station in order to rest or spend the night, he would select for himself four stones, pick out the finest among them and adopt it as his god, and use the remaining three as supports for his cooking-pot.’’ This inscription was once in the collection of the intrepid British-Australian travel...

Supreme hand painted Monumental Porcelain Jaguar Sculpture, Spring Summer 2023. 34" ceramic hand painted jaguar with logo on side. Made in Italy exc...

Glass and bronze sculpture. Work made with applied feathers in opaque and transparent polychrome glass produced directly by Toni Zuccheri in 2007. The base and skeleton are in lost-w...

Art Nouveau ceramic figurines Rstk Amphora Austria Turn Teplitz - a pair Attributed to Riessner, Stellmacher and Kessel for Amphora, Turn Teplitz Austria...

Ronzan “stile” Jaguar ceramic, 1950, Italy.

Saint Nazaire Sword, Late Bronze Age, circa 800-900 B.C. An exceptionally well preserved Bronze Age sword, with elegant, finely incised decorations,...

Armadillos ("little armoured ones" in Spanish) are New World placental mammals characterized by a leathery armour shell and long, sharp claws for digging. They have short legs but ca...

One of the finest living American sculptors, William Behrends created and sculpted this spectacular over life-size bronze polo player. He created portrait work for the White House, State Capitol buildings in D.C and Tennessee, for the Houston Astrodome and has won many commissions for monuments across the US. For over a quarter of a century, nationally celebrated, William Behrends has created the iconic portraits on the Borg- Warner Trophy cup for the Indy 500 winners along with other commissions. He is a popular portraitist and has twice received the Richard portrait Prize by the National Sculpture Society in recognition of his expertise in evoking the character of his sitters in bronze, marble as well as terracotta. Mr. Behrends has sculpted life-size statues of the four great baseball legends Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Juan Marichal and Orlando Cepeda which reside at Oracle Park, home of the San Francisco Giants (Giants/ AT&T ballpark). He also made baseball’s Tony Gwynn at Petco Park in San Diego, Buck O’Neill in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese in Brooklyn. He has sculpted figures of golfers Ben Hogan...

Playful true-to-life silver armadillo that serves as a lighter other than being a decorative artwork in its own right. Expertly made by the Florentine...