Italian, probably Volterra, late 18th/ early 19th century

This beautiful alabaster group with Europa and the Bull compares with late 18th- and early 19th-century groups made in the alabaster carving centre of Tuscany, Volterra. Compare, for example, with the late 18th-century Sleeping Ariadne from Spetchley Park, originally at Stowe House, Buckingshire, sold in these rooms on 11 December 2009, lot 17.