PTOLEMAIC-ROMAN PERIOD, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.

Details

AN EGYPTIAN MOSAIC GLASS IBIS INLAY
PTOLEMAIC-ROMAN PERIOD, CIRCA 1ST CENTURY B.C.-1ST CENTURY A.D.
With translucent dark blue and opaque white body, dark blue and yellow canes, with red ring eye, in opaque green matrix
13/16 in. x ¾ in. (2 cm. x 1.9 cm.)

Provenance

The Groppi Collection, Switzerland; acquired in the 1920s-1940s.

Exhibited

Antikensmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig und Museum August Kestner Hannover, Köstlichkeiten aus Kairo!, 2008, no. 26.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

PUBLISHED:
Exhibition catalogue, Köstlichkeiten aus Kairo!, Antikensmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig und Museum August Kestner Hannover, 2008, p. 76, no. 26.

Cf. an identical fragment missing the upper part, formerly in the Momelian collection, Paris, in E. M. Stern and B. Schlick-Nolte, Early Glass of the Ancient World, 1600 B.C.- A.D. 50, Ernesto Wolf Collection, Ostfildern, 1994, no. 122.

The ibis was a manifestation of the moon-god Thoth, the god of knowledge, writing, time, mathematics, and the patron god of scribes, later identified with the Greek god Hermes.

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