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A Large Byzantine Bronze Steelyard Weight, 4th/5th Century A.D.
Estimate
6,000 - 9,000 USD
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Description
- A Large Byzantine Bronze Steelyard Weight
- Height without suspension hook 9 1/2 in. 24.1 cm.
in the form of a bust of Athena supported on a rectangular base engraved with scrolling tendrils, the goddess wearing a chiton, chlamys, aegis, and high crested Corinthian helmet with engraved eye holes, her large eyes with indented pupils, the inside filled with lead; remains of marine incrustation.
Provenance
Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, May 19th, 1979, no. 219, illus.
Literature
Norbert Franken, Aequipondia: figürliche Laufgewichte römischer und frühbyzantinischer Schnellwaagen, Alfter, 1994, pp. 182-183, CB8, pl. 103
Catalogue Note
Franken mentions two closely related examples almost as large, one in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 59.184 (on display in the Byzantine Galleries), the other on the art market in Geneva in 1987 (Franken, op. cit., p. 183, CB9-10, pl. 104). See also Master Bronzes, no. 315.