A huge 1980 composite Alva museum replica of the Greek marble head of Asklepios molded with the base, most well known as the god of healing, medicine, and physicians, H: 17 in (43.3 cm). Areas of the head appear to have been painted in silver. The original resides in the British Museum with the description: 'This head comes from a colossal statue of the god Asklepios, a god of medicine and healing. It was constructed from three separately worked pieces, of which two survive. The calm expression of the face is set off by a full beard and crown of hair. The lead pegs that would have held a gold wreath are still in place, but the wreath is now lost. The cult of Asklepios was popular throughout Greece and Asia Minor during the Classical period (480-300 BC) and the Hellenistic period (323-30 BC). Important centres were set up in Athens and at Epidaurus in the Peloponnese. Hippocrates was the founding father of modern scientific medicine and, following his death in 357 BC, a healing sanctuary was established on his native island of Cos. There, Asklepios was represented in what became the canonical manner of the later Hellenistic and Roman periods: bearded, semi-nude and supported on one side by a staff around which a serpent is coiled. This head probably comes from such a statue'. The original heads dates to about 325-300 BC and was excavated on the island of Milos in the Southern Aegean. Alva Museum Replicas History (1948 – 1990): Replicas were designed by Alva Studios, operated by Alfred Wolkenberg. Alfred was born in Vienna in 1911 and immigrated to the US in 1939. In 1948 he founded Alva Studios of Long Island City, NY. He had many artists and designers who were commissioned to produce reproductions of ancient jewelry and sculpture. All the pieces were marked Alva Museum Replicas and sold at museums worldwide. His Egyptian Revival, Greek Revival, Ancient and Oriental jewelry is highly collectable. Marked on the back of his head, below the hair '59 Alva Studios'. Not ancient.