CHICAGO – On May 27, Hindman will present its biannual Antiquities and Ancient Art auction, offering collectors an opportunity to acquire objects from the world’s earliest civilizations. Comprised of more than 180 lots, the sale spans nearly four millennia and includes Roman mosaics, Greek pottery, Byzantine jewelry, and Egyptian stone and faience amulets. Most noteworthy is an impressive selection of marble portrait heads from the Greco-Roman world. Absentee and Internet live bidding will be available through LiveAuctioneers.
The sale will start with early European stone tools and ancient jewelry. Stone tools such as these show sculpture in their most essential forms, while intricate jewelry illustrates the use of tools in their creation and the significance of gemstones early on.
Royal portraiture will also be showcased throughout the sale. This includes marble portrait heads of Roman emperors such as the Young Caracalla, estimated at $80,000-$120,000; Trajan, estimated at $40,000-$60,000; and Nero, estimated at $20,000-$25,000. Other portrait heads include a Hellenistic man, estimated at $30,000-$50,000, Herodes Atticus, estimated at $40,000-$60,000, and the Pharaoh Ptolemy III, estimated at $30,000-$50,000.
A marble panther head from ancient Greece made in the third to second century B.C.E. is the cover lot, and carries an estimate of $40,000-$60,000. In classical antiquity, panthers were the companion animal to Dionysos, and the two were often depicted together in sculpture.
The auction will also feature exquisite mosaics, such as a late Roman polychrome stone mosaic from the third to fourth century, estimated at $50,000-$80,000. Scenes of exotic wild animals were popular subject matters in Roman art, particularly in large mosaic floors such as this one. Other important mosaics on offer include two fragment panels from part of a floor discovered near Rome on Monte Rosario about half a mile beyond the Porta Portensis on the banks of the Tiber, respectively estimated at $4,000-$6,000 and $5,000-$7,000. These mosaic fragments are published in A. Michaelis’ compendium on ancient marbles found in Great Britain’s treasure houses, and were previously displayed on the same floor as the mosaic panels currently on loan to the Art Institute of Chicago.
Other standout lots include a Palmyrene limestone relief from the third century that depicts two merchants engaging in trade, estimated at $50,000-$70,000; an Egyptian sandstone relief of a river god from the Ptolemaic Period estimated at $20,000-$30,000; and a Greek marble funerary stele of Eurynome from the early fourth century B.C.E., estimated at $35,000-$55,000.
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