Ibex Standard, Transcaucasus

the ibex perched atop a separately cast shaft decorated in relief on the front and back with a continuous spiral frieze and flanked by four bud-shaped ornaments, the ibex (containing pellets to make a rattling sound in movement) inserted into a bud-shaped socket, and standing in an alert attitude with tail upturned, spiral beard, erect ears, circular eyes in relief, and tuft of hair in front of the horns.

Mathias Komor, New York
Howard and Saretta Barnet, New York, acquired from the above on September 26, 1966

Asia House Gallery, New York, “Animal Style” Art from East to West, January 15 - March 15, 1970, and travelling: The University Museum, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, April 2 - May 31, 1970; M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, June 12 - July 19, 1970

Emma C. Bunker, C. Bruce Chatwin, and Ann R. Farkas, "Animal Style" Art from East to West, New York, 1970, p. 42, cat. no. 24

Overall very good, as shown. There are various small holes and short splits, some of which may be casting flaws and some intentional. Slightly bent in a few places. The tips of the horns appear to be chipped. This is a tiny speck of what appears to be bronze disease on one of the two bud shaped terminals at the base. The ibex figure itself moves within its socket, this may or may not be intentional. The very delicate tail does not appear to be reattached.
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This standard probably served as a chariot decoration, a later version of similar Bronze Age standards found in Armenia. There they have been found fastened to the chariot at the point where the chariot pole meets the yoke. The form of the shaft appears related to Urartian representations of sacred trees, in the present example shown with an ibex perched on top. For further discussion of this standard see Bunker, Chatwin, and Farkas, “Animal Style” Art from East to West, New York, 1970, p. 55. For other examples of these standards compare Sotheby’s, New York, December 7, 2001, lot 159, and Christie’s, New York, June 6, 2013, lots 691 and 692, surmounted respectively by an ibex, a stag, and a doe.