Giant Egg of the Extinct 'Elephant Bird'

A beautiful section of the lunar meteorite Gadamis 003, discovered in the oasis Berber town of Ghadames, Libya, and revealing a magnificent greyish-white spotted interior, evoking th...

Roman Marble Head of Sophocles Circa 1st-2nd Century Marble This fine Roman marble head preserves the proper left side of the face of a middle-aged man, with broad nose, soft lips, and bearded chin. The short beard and sideburns have been finely carved with a flat chisel, to render the soft, wavy strands of hair. The cheekbone, undereye, and nasolabial folds have been delicately modelled in the marble by a skilled hand. In a letter from 1975, the former director of Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek, Copenhagen, suggested that the head could depict the Ancient Greek tragedian Sophocles. Few figures in the Classical world stand aside Sophocles (c. 496-406 BC), inarguably the best known of the Athenian tragedians, in terms of the impact his works have had on the history of art and literature. The psychological depth he achieves in the seven of the 123 of his plays that have survived to the present day - most notably the three Theban plays: Antigone, Oedipus the King, and Oedipus at Colonus - not only inspired the Athenians, among whom Sophocles was honoured as a hero long after his death, but in our own time, have provoked landmark works on phychoanalysis and literary criticism, by thinkers like René Girard and, most famously, Sigmund Freud. In its masterful treatment of the marble this fragment sensitively captures the features of one of the most important playwrights of all time. Height on stand: 7.9 inches (20 cm). Provenance: Collection of Danish sculptor Jens Adolf Jerichau...

Mid-century pair of Anthony Redmile urns crafted with an eccentric array of materials featuring amethyst stone, ostrich eggs, boar tusks and carved ebony all in a dramatic compositio...

A highly collectable and delightful silver gilt novelty egg containing a hummingbird by renowned silversmith and artist Stuart Devlin (Australian, 1931-2018) and dated 1977. Stuart D...