MONTROSE, Calif. – Ancient Resource Auctions’ online-only Exceptional Summer Antiquities Auction on Saturday, Aug. 3, is packed with over 380 lots of authentic, well-provenanced ancient Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Near Eastern, Islamic, Byzantine and Pre-Columbian antiquities and ethnographic items, including a selection of natural history and fossils. Bid absentee or live online through LiveAuctioneers.
The auction will start promptly at 9 am Pacific time. “We’re featuring an incredible selection of antiquities from a wide variety of cultures,” said Gabriel Vandervort of Ancient Resource Auctions. “In addition, we have a fantastic selection of fossils we’re excited to be offering. Buyers are bound to get wonderful pieces at really great prices.”
Several pieces are expected to vie for top lot of the auction. One is a beautiful Egyptian panel from the lid of a sarcophagus, dating to the Late Period (circa 664-332 B.C.). The 33½-inch-tall panel (below), formerly in the collection of the late actor Larry Hagman, is fashioned from wood panels, with the “mummy mask” still attached and the headdress still in place (est. $12,000-$20,000).
A fantastic, large Archaic Greek stone head of a Kouros (below) from the sixth century B.C., with large, almond-shaped eyes and hair in long curled locks, has an estimate of $18,000-$25,000. The head is 19 inches tall by 14 inches wide and comes with a large custom-made base. It was formerly in the collection of Dr. Elie Borowski and was exhibited in the Getty Villa in the early 1970s.
An actual papyrus page from an ancient Book of the Dead (Late Period to Ptolemaic, circa 664-30 B.C.), from a chapter between 64-129, should command $12,000-$20,000. The 36-by-11-inch page boasts lovely vignettes. At the center is a Kheper (scarab beetle), with the wings, feet and tail of a falcon, surmounted by a solar disc. The page is housed in a rectangular frame.
The lovely Roman marble head of a woman from the Julio-Claudian Period (circa early first century B.C.), attached to a contemporary marble base and with an overall height of 15¾ inches, has an estimate of $9,000-$12,000. The bust could be that of Empress Livia Drusilla, the wife of Augustus, mother of Tiberius, grandmother of Claudius and the great-grandmother of Caligula.
An outstanding Etruscan female votive head from the fourth century B.C., 9¼ inches in height, should garner $7,000-$15,000. The head boasts extremely well-defined and stylish features; she’s wearing earrings and her hair is styled back in waves below a diadem and rolled at the nape of the neck. It’s a superior example of the Etruscan’s mastery of the arts, on a custom wood base.
A marvelous ancient Greek Lucanian red-figure skyphos, a deep, cup-shaped vessel with a pair of horizontal handles to the rim and having deeply vertical sides, possibly from the Intermediate Group (circa 400-375 B.C.), has an estimate of $6,000-$9,000. The 7-inch-tall skyphos is nicely painted with a woman in a dress on one side apparently chasing a young man on the other.
A large Byzantine double-spouted bronze lamp on a flared pedestal foot, from circa the sixth or seventh century, 9¾ inches tall, is expected to finish at $10,000-$15,000. The body is elegant and rounded, having long nozzles with flaring tips. A lion and a panther adorn the nozzles, each flanked by suspension loops. It’s a lovely lamp, with well-preserved brown patinated surfaces.
A rare and remarkably well-preserved fossil skull of a wild boar from South Central Europe, dating back circa 8,500-16,500 years, to the Late Pleistocene or Mesolithic period, is expected to bring $15,000-$25,000. The 12¼-inch-long skull and lower jaw are in impeccable condition. The jaw retains all its molars and premolars, the original tusks and three of the original six incisors.
An exceedingly rare Taino wooden zemi (sculptural object said to house a spirit), circa 1000-1500, fashioned from lignum vitae (a member of the creosote tree family and thus resistant to decay and insects), has an estimate of $1,200-$1,800. This may be the only wooden zemi known. The gaping mouth suggests a tribute to Yucahu, the primary god of growing and fertility.
Previews are by appointment only; to schedule one call 818-425-9633 or send an e-mail to ancientresourceauctions@yahoo.com.
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