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Expert’s note
Amulets carved from agate are exceptionally rare in Old Babylonian material culture. Although hard and semi-precious stones were highly valued throughout Mesopotamia, they were more commonly employed for cylinder seals (see literature comparison below), beads, and other small luxury objects, while surviving amulets are frequently fashioned from other stones or composite materials. The use of banded agate for the present work therefore already distinguishes it as an object of considerable refinement. Agate itself was prized for its natural color variations and was deliberately exploited by ancient craftsmen, as demonstrated by later Mesopotamian “eye-stone” amulets in which the stone’s natural banding became integral to the image. Rarer still is the choice of a grasshopper as the subject. Insect amulets are attested in the ancient Near East, including examples in the form of flies, but grasshopper or locust amulets are far better documented in Egypt than in Mesopotamia. See Christie’s New York, 13 December 2002, lot 534 (sold for USD 7,767 or approx. EUR 12,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing) (fig.1).
Mesopotamia. Finely carved in the form of a grasshopper, the insect rendered with remarkable naturalism, from the pronounced ridges of the pronotum and bent hind legs to the characteristic bulbous eyes. The choice of stone is particularly effective, its undulating bands of red, pink, gray, and brown running longitudinally across the body and enhancing the impression of the insect’s segmented anatomy. The craftsman has skillfully exploited the natural striations of the agate so that the darker wavy bands correspond visually with the divisions of the abdomen.
Art Loss Register: ALR Ref. S00120954. A copy of the certification document accompanies the lot.
Provenance: European Art Market, 1990s. A private collection in the USA, acquired in 1999. With Ariadne Galleries, New York and London, acquired on the New York art market in 2016. A private collection in the USA, acquired from the above in 2017. A copy of a certificate issued by Ariadne Demirjian, confirming the dating and the above provenance, accompanies this lot. A copy of the invoice from Ariadne Demirjian, dated 23 January 2017, confirming the dating and provenance above, accompanies the lot. Ariadne Galleries, founded in 1972, has established a reputation as one of the world’s leading dealers in ancient art. For many years based in a prominent gallery on New York’s Upper East Side, Ariadne expanded to London in 2014, opening a second gallery in the historic art district of Mayfair. Over more than five decades, the gallery has worked with important private collectors and foundations as well as many of the world’s leading museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Harvard University Art Museums, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.
Condition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Old wear, obvious losses, expected natural fissures and inclusions, minuscule nibbling, and signs of prolonged burial. The amulet has a crack through the center, with associated repairs.
Weight: 13.9 g (excl. stand), 144.9 g (incl. stand)
Dimensions: Length 4.5 cm (excl. stand), Height 4.3 cm (incl. stand)
With an associated stand. (2)
This intricately carved amulet originates from southern Mesopotamia, in the state known as Babylonia, named after the most important city in the region, Babylon. Under the rule of the Amorites, Babylon grew in prominence and power, and was regarded in antiquity as a cultural center. Due to the scarcity of stone in this region, the material was highly prized, and artists became adept at cutting precious and semi-precious varieties, such as the present red and brown agate grasshopper.
The accuracy with which the grasshopper has been carved - from the ridges on the pronotum (prothorax) and incised bent hind legs, to the characteristic bulbous eyes - is remarkable, especially when one takes into consideration the particularly unyielding quality of this type of stone. What affords special character to the work, however, is the extraordinary skill with which the artist has chosen his stone and fashioned it so that the deepest red/purple wavy bands run from front to back along the body of the insect, at about the point where, on a living grasshopper, the spiracles along the abdomen give the impression of rounded segments. The artist, then, has ingeniously worked the stone to imitate the naturalistic elements of the subject, as well as to create a truly beautiful aesthetic effect.
From the earliest times, in the civilizations of the ancient Near East and elsewhere, such as Egypt, men and women wore amulets or charms in a variety of forms, often in the shape of animals, or pictorial cylinder seals. Not only were these amulets thought to carry special, even magical, properties, but they were extremely personal objects indicative of social status and individual taste. Often, they were pierced vertically for suspension from a cord, likely hung around the owner's neck, perhaps on a string of beads, or fastened among their personal effects - an integral component of everyday life. The grasshopper, along with the frog, seems to have been favored by women, since, owing to these creatures' reproductive abilities, their images were thought to have fertility-inducing properties. As such, small charms and amulets in their likeness were worn in anticipation of future and continued fertility and abundance. Old Babylonian texts also attest to the practice of holding special types of colored stone on the body in rituals intended to induce pregnancy.
Literature comparison:
Compare a related Old Babylonian cylinder seal which depicts a grasshopper in between a bearded king and a goddess, dated 1894-1595 BC, in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, accession number 34.1443. Compare a related agate frog, Akkadian, dated 2400-2200 BC, 2.7 cm wide, in the British Museum, registration number 123555.
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