A CARVED IVORY RELIEF DEPICTING LAOCOON probably french, late 18th/early 19th century

Estimate

6,000 - 8,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

height of ivory 6 1/8 in.; width 4 1/8 in.
15.5 cm; 10.5 cm

finely carved depicting Laocoon at the centre and his two sons attacked by the serpent from heaven. Set within a regency carved giltwood frame labelled G. Cooper's.

Provenance

Sold, Christies, London, June 9, 2005, lot 67
George Byng Esq. M.P. (d.1847) through Jarmans at Squibs, 1827 and thence by descent.

Literature

RELATED LITERATURE:
'List of Furniture, Porcelain, Paintings & C., purchased by George Byng Esq., for Wrotham Park, 1816-43','Jarmans 1827 at squibs...a carving in Ivory of the Laocoon & Frame £8.10.'
Wrotham Park 1847 Inventory, 'BOUDOIR Two ivory carving groups framed and glazed'.

Catalogue Note

Discovered on January 15, 1506, near S. Maria Maggiore, Rome, the Laocoon group soon eclipsed even the Apollo Belvedere in fame and, for several centuries, the two were ranked together as the pre-eminent works of antiquity.