A late 18th century white marble bust of Sappho
Her hair tied in a chignon, in classical dress revealing one breast, on a turned socle base, 59cm high.
Sappho is often associated with love poetry. This bust of Sappho is after a head of slightly earlier date which was at Wilton House, Salisbury and appears in a wash drawing by William Stukeley dated 1722.
The Wilton bust was listed in an inventory by R.Cowdry, A Description of the Curiosities in Wilton-House,1722 as next to the Great Room, 'Seneca, Sappho, with the bandage as deified, of the finest Marble like Ivory, the last Perfection of Greek Sculpture; white as at first making, because (with several here) found in a Vault.