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Scientific Analysis Report:
1. A thermoluminescence analysis report issued by Laboratory Kotalla on 18 August 2025, based on sample number 25AP07082025, sets the firing date of the sample taken to be 2400 years +/-13.5 %, consistent with the dating above. A copy of the report accompanies this lot.
2. A thermoluminescence analysis report issued by Oxford Authentication on 11 February 2010, based on sample number N110a63, sets the firing date of the one sample taken between 1700 and 2600 years ago, consistent with the dating above. A copy of the report accompanies this lot.
External expert authentication: This lot was authenticated and dated by Alessandro Neri, an International Cultural Heritage expert, confirming the dating stated above. He states that after visual examination, the object with its stylistic features, manufacturing techniques, and burial patina is authentic. A copy of the statement accompanies the lot.
Greece. Naturalistically modeled as a winding snake, identified as a viper in the expertise by Cahn, the sinuous body terminating in a gently raised head detailed with stern eyes, a pointed snout, and closed mouth. The red terracotta body covered overall in a lustrous near-black Attic glaze.
Condition: The snake with expected wear and traces of prolonged burial. The head and several sections of the body have been reattached with minor touchups. One section of the body and the tip of the tail have been renewed. The underside with two holes drilled for sample taking and subsequently refilled. Light scratches and minor flaking to the glaze.
Given the inherent fragility of an object of this type and its age of more than 2,500 years, breaks and subsequent reassembly are to be expected. The present example is preserved to a remarkably large extent in its original substance, with only comparatively minor replacements. The state of preservation must therefore be considered excellent for an object of this age and type. Overall presenting exceptionally well.
Artloss Register: Certificate from March 2010. A copy of this document accompanies the lot.
Provenance:
- Bruce Gollan collection, circa 1970-1980, Australia.
- Since 1991 in a London private collection, United Kingdom.
- Jean David Cahn, acquired from the above.
- TEFAF 2010, 16 March 2010.
- The Saoud bin Mohammed Ali Al-Thani Foundation.
A copy of an expertise, issued by Cahn International, 24 March 2010, L-Nr. 10037, accompanies the lot.
Bruce Gollan (died 2001) was an Australian classicist and lecturer in the Department of Classics and Ancient History at the University of Queensland, where he became the first Director of the University's Antiquities Museum in the early 1980s. He played an important role in developing the Museum's collection and promoting its use for teaching, research, and public education. Gollan was involved in several projects devoted to the study and presentation of the Museum's ancient Egyptian and Western Asian antiquities, and co-authored the book, Museums and Collections: Maximising their Contribution to Teaching and Learning, Research and Community Service (1996).
Saoud bin Mohammed Ali Al-Thani (1966-2014) was a Qatari prince who served as minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage. By the turn of the 21st century, Sheikh Saoud had established an international reputation as an avid art collector, both for his own collection as well as those of several state-owned museums he oversaw in Qatar. Sheikh Saoud’s legacy as a collector is remarkable, as he laid the foundations of the major collections of Qatar Museums. In 2021, the Museum of Islamic Art hosted an exhibition in tribute to the legendary collector, titled A Falcon's Eye: Tribute to Sheikh Saoud Al-Thani.
Jean-David Cahn is a Swiss classical archaeologist and distinguished dealer in ancient art, representing the fourth generation of the Cahn family in the antiquities trade. After studying Classical Archaeology in Basel and working at the Antikenmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig, he pursued doctoral research at Oxford under Sir John Boardman and was a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College from 1990 to 1996. In 1999 he established Galerie Jean-David Cahn in Basel, specializing in ancient Greek, Etruscan, Roman, and Egyptian art. A founding member of IADAA, Cahn has served as an expert for cultural administrations and the Council of Europe and has advised major museums and private collectors internationally.
Weight: 301 g
Dimensions: Length 46.3 cm
Black-glazed pottery in the Greek world represents one of the most technically sophisticated strands of ceramic production. Attic black-glazed wares were produced from at least the eighth century BC, reaching their peak between the sixth and fourth centuries, and were widely exported throughout the Mediterranean. Technologically, the black surface is achieved through the application of a specially prepared, iron-rich clay slip and a carefully controlled firing sequence. Within this broader technological framework, black-glazed animal figurines form a small but significant category bridging tableware and coroplastic production.
Snakes were closely associated with ideas of death, regeneration, and rebirth in the ancient Mediterranean world. They appear throughout ancient art in sculpture, pottery, frescoes, and mosaics, while snake-shaped ornaments in iron, bronze, and gold, particularly bracelets, were also widespread. Owing to the fragility of terracotta, however, freestanding ceramic representations of snakes are comparatively rare among surviving examples. See a related bronze snake, dated 6th century BC, 11.4 cm long, in the British Museum, museum number 1951,0329.7. For a glass snake, dated 1-100 AD, see the Getty Museum, reference number 2003.257. See a gold bracelet in the form of a snake, Ptolemaic period, 8.5 cm long, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 1988.22.
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