Object Description
An Openwork Copper Alloy Garment Pin
Superb colour and patina
Bronze
Eastern Iran or Central Asia
2000 BC
SIZE: 35cm wide – 13¾ ins wide
An Openwork Copper Alloy Garment Pin
Superb colour and patina
Bronze
Eastern Iran or Central Asia
2000 BC
SIZE: 35cm wide – 13¾ ins wide
Ex John Kasmin Private collection
Ex Oliver Hoare Ltd.
Ex Private collection
A similar pin in the Louvre-France, was exhibited in the Metropolitan Museum’s ‘Art of the First Cities’ exhibition in 2003 (no. 228). The catalogue entry records that while Pierre Amiet believes the couple are engaged in flirtatious banter, Victor Sarianidi thinks it represents the transmission of a ‘revelation’ from one individual to another. Not that one precludes the other, of course. The Louvre pin shows the couple beneath a curved lintel, while this example has an elaborate surround; a phallic symbol between recumbent lions below; a wriggling serpent rising on each side; and a balcony above the lintel.
By appointment only.
Suite 744
2 Old Brompton Road
London
SW7 3DQ (by appointment)
Exhibition address: (June and December, contact for details)
Cromwell Place
4 Cromwell Place
London
SW7 2JE
Rue Ernest Allard, 32
Brussels
Sablon
1000
Belgium (by appointment)