Cypro-Archaic I, 750-600 B.C. Carved in the round as an advancing bull with its tail placed between the hindlegs, thick fur to the throat; the fill between the legs with traces of cross-hatching in red pigment; old collector's label '477' to flange base; mounted on an old wooden collector's stand with painted numeral '193' to one face. Cf. Hastings, E.A., The Sculpture from the Sacred Animal Necropolis at North Saqqâra 1964-76, London, 1997, pl. LV, for a bull or bull calf statue associated with the Apis cult. 1.29 kg total, 24 cm including stand (9 1/2 in.).

Base and collection numbers suggesting it may have been deaccessioned from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent. PUBLISHED: L.P. di Cesnola, A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, vol. I, Boston, 1885, pl. 98.

This possibly represents a bull or bull calf associated with the Apis cult. [No Reserve] [A video of this lot is available to view on Timeline Auctions Website]