Lot Essay
According to Ghirshman, this piece was found in a cache of six similar figures. Of the group, this fragmentary example is one of the largest; those preserved in their entirety are the same height as our incomplete figure. Each example differs considerably. This most closely resembles one acquired by the Louvre in 1961 (p. 36 in Caubet & Bernus-Taylor, The Louvre, Near Eastern Antiquities). The Louvre example has a similar face and is inserted below the breast into a limestone skirt. A figure once in the Schuster Collection, sold at Sotheby's London in 1989, also has a limestone skirt. The present example differs from the others in that it lacks the "scales" or hair on the body.