CIRCA LATE 3RD MILLENNIUM B.C.

This unusual stand is hollow-cast using the lost-wax process. The form and lines are simple and elegant with the charming addition of the two kids suckling their mother on either side. The only added decoration would have been the coloured shell or hardstone inlays once held by the deep recesses of the mother's eyes. The circular support emerging from the shaft at the animal's back would have probably held a basin for incense, another offering or a torch holder.

For a similar stand with just one animal cf. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, acc. no. 54.2328. A stand in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, still retains the shell and lapis eye inlays, inv. no. 1974.190 (O. W. Muscarella, Bronze and Iron Ancient Near Eastern Artifacts in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1988, pp. 333-336, no. 467). Another stand with human figure holding a circular framework can be found in the Ortiz collection (In Pursuit of the Absolute Art of the Ancient World from the George Ortiz Collection, London, 1994, no. 16). The base of this figure is also reminiscent to the one above, with rectangular protrusions for the figure's feet, similar to the ones for the forelegs of the kids. An even more elaborate and much larger stand (perhaps for a table) can be found in the al-Sabah collection (D. Freeman et. al, Splendors of the Ancient East Antiquities from The al-Sabah Collection, London, 2013, pp. 22-24 and p. 38-39, no. 4).