Sold for €585
including Buyer's Premium
Please note this Lot is to be sold at No Reserve. 本拍品不設底價
China, 1600-1046 BC. Of tapering form, both are carved with a finely detailed taotie mask. Each has a small piercing drilled through the front, joining the main vertical tunnel, and the is back flattened. The opaque stone is covered extensively with milk-white calcification and some faint russet inclusions. (2)
Provenance: Collection of Harry Geoffrey Beasley and thence by descent to his widow Irene Beasley. Collection of Alfred William Cowperthwaite, acquired from the above c. 1939 and thence by descent in the same family. Harry Geoffrey Beasley (1881-1939) was a British anthropologist and museum curator who developed an important ethnographic collection during the early 20th century that is now held in various British museums. With his wife Irene, Beasley set up the Cranmore Ethnographical Museum which eventually held more than 6,000 objects of ethnographical interest. The Beasleys collected objects from across Europe, buying from auction houses and local museums to expand the collection, which contained material from the Pacific, Asia, Africa, and Northwestern America. Beasley wrote numerous articles for anthropological journals and was considered an expert in his field. He died in 1939 and his collection was stored with the British Museum collections during the war, which was fortunate, as the Cranmore Museum was destroyed by bombing. After the war, substantial portions of the collection were passed to the British Museum, the Royal Museum in Edinburgh, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the University of Cambridge, the Pitt Rivers Museum, and the Merseyside County Museum. Other pieces, such as the present lot, were sold by his widow and, after her death in 1974, by their daughters. Alfred William Cowperthwaite (1890-1964) was a contributor to the Cranmore Museum and became good friends with Harry Beasley. Shortly after Harry Beasley’s death, he acquired a number of objects from Irene Beasley, including the present lot.
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age, with expected old wear and minuscule, mostly smoothened nicks. The stone with natural inclusions and fissures which have developed into small hairline cracks over time.
Weight: 2.7 g and 2.6 g
Dimensions: Length 1.4 cm and 1.4 cm
Please note this Lot is to be sold at No Reserve. 本拍品不設底價
China, 1600-1046 BC. Of tapering form, both are carved with a finely detailed taotie mask. Each has a small piercing drilled through the front, joining the main vertical tunnel, and the is back flattened. The opaque stone is covered extensively with milk-white calcification and some faint russet inclusions. (2)
Provenance: Collection of Harry Geoffrey Beasley and thence by descent to his widow Irene Beasley. Collection of Alfred William Cowperthwaite, acquired from the above c. 1939 and thence by descent in the same family. Harry Geoffrey Beasley (1881-1939) was a British anthropologist and museum curator who developed an important ethnographic collection during the early 20th century that is now held in various British museums. With his wife Irene, Beasley set up the Cranmore Ethnographical Museum which eventually held more than 6,000 objects of ethnographical interest. The Beasleys collected objects from across Europe, buying from auction houses and local museums to expand the collection, which contained material from the Pacific, Asia, Africa, and Northwestern America. Beasley wrote numerous articles for anthropological journals and was considered an expert in his field. He died in 1939 and his collection was stored with the British Museum collections during the war, which was fortunate, as the Cranmore Museum was destroyed by bombing. After the war, substantial portions of the collection were passed to the British Museum, the Royal Museum in Edinburgh, the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the University of Cambridge, the Pitt Rivers Museum, and the Merseyside County Museum. Other pieces, such as the present lot, were sold by his widow and, after her death in 1974, by their daughters. Alfred William Cowperthwaite (1890-1964) was a contributor to the Cranmore Museum and became good friends with Harry Beasley. Shortly after Harry Beasley’s death, he acquired a number of objects from Irene Beasley, including the present lot.
Condition: Very good condition, commensurate with age, with expected old wear and minuscule, mostly smoothened nicks. The stone with natural inclusions and fissures which have developed into small hairline cracks over time.
Weight: 2.7 g and 2.6 g
Dimensions: Length 1.4 cm and 1.4 cm
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