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Egypt, c. 664-332 BC. Hollow-cast, with alert expression, the angular face with deeply-set elongated eyes, the radiating whiskers finely incised above the closed mouth, pierced upright ears with gold earrings and incised tufts as horizontal striations to the edges. The bronze with a naturally grown patina, enlivened by vibrant malachite encrustations and patches of cuprite, creating a striking mottled effect reminiscent of the coat of a spotted feline.
Provenance: The private collection of George Embiricos, acquired in the 1950s-1960s. With Rupert Wace Ancient Art, London, United Kingdom. A private collection in London, UK, acquired from the above in 2001. George Embiricos (1920-2011) was a Greek shipping magnate and distinguished art collector who assembled an exceptionally broad collection spanning Old Master, Impressionist, modern, and contemporary art, as well as Classical antiquities. He began collecting seriously after moving to New York in the late 1940s and continued to acquire works over several decades, eventually displaying many of them in his home in Lausanne, Switzerland. His collection was noted for both its quality and remarkable range, including major works by El Greco, Goya, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Kandinsky, Picasso, and Francis Bacon. Among the most celebrated works in his collection was Paul Cézanne’s The Card Players, reportedly sold in 2011 to the Qatari royal family for an estimated USD 259-320 million, at the time widely reported as the highest price ever paid for a painting. Rupert Wace (b. 1955) has been a leading figure in the world of Antiquities for over forty years. A collector at heart and sometime dealer by profession, Wace's expertise ranges from ancient Egypt and the Classical world to the Near East. His clients include international collectors and many of the world's leading museums, including the British Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, among others. He is a longstanding member of The Antiquities Dealer's Association (ADA) and currently sits on the board of the International Association of Dealers in Ancient Art (IADAA).
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Old wear, obvious losses, casting irregularities, and repairs to the snout with stabilization to the interior. The gold earrings renewed. Overall with a naturally grown patina, showing distinct cuprite and malachite encrustations.
Weight: 95.8 g (excl. stand), 245.3 g (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Height 5.5 cm (excl. stand), 12 cm (incl. stand)
Mounted on a fitted wood stand. (2)
In ancient Egypt, the cat personified Bastet, the goddess of fertility, pleasure, and good health. Those hoping to conceive or seeking protection against disease would make offerings to her. This often took the form of a pilgrimage to her temple, Bubastis (modern Tell Basta near Zagazig in the eastern Delta), or Memphis to deposit votive objects. Bubastis, in addition to other Egyptian sites, became the site of a large cat cemetery, in which mummified cats were deposited as votives. Skeletal evidence suggests that the mummified cats had been intentionally killed while still young, rather than having been cherished pets that died of natural causes. Small cat figurines were often wrapped in the linen bandages of the mummified remains, which were in turn placed in bronze or wooden containers in the shape of seated cats. Many of the larger, hollow-cast bronze cats can be interpreted in this way and retain an opening into the body cavity. The majority of the bronzes, however, were dedicated in shrines.
The function of these large cat heads is ambiguous. They have been found in offering contexts, and it is commonly assumed that they formed part of a composite statuette; the full statuette, when intact, probably would have had a hollow wooden body and held a cat mummy inside, much as similar large hollow copper alloy statuettes did. However, these figures are almost never found with the composite bodies, even at sites where wood is relatively well preserved. It is possible that in some cases these cat heads were dedicated on their own, or were purposefully disassembled from their bodies, which were then discarded or used in another way.
Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related bronze head of a cat, Late Period, dated 664-332 BC, 10.9 cm high, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, object number 1977.260.
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s New York, 13 October 2020, lot 14
Price: USD 27,500 or approx. EUR 31,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An Egyptian bronze cat head, Late Period
Expert remark: Compare the closely related modeling, expression, and gold earrings. Note the similar size (7.9 cm).
Auction result comparison:
Type: Closely related
Auction: Christie’s London, 6 December 2017, lot 93
Price: GBP 32,500 or approx. EUR 52,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: An Egyptian bronze cat head, Late Period
Expert remark: Compare the closely related modeling, expression, and size (8.4 cm).
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