2023.501.11: Finial in the Shape of a Reclining Winged Horse

Identification and Creation

Object Number

2023.501.11

Title

Finial in the Shape of a Reclining Winged Horse

Classification

Jewelry

Work Type

pin

Date

10th-8th century BCE

Places

Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Asia, Luristan (Iran)
Find Spot: Middle East, Iran, Western Iran

Period

Iron Age

Culture

Iranian

Persistent Link

https://hvrd.art/o/303594

Physical Descriptions

Medium

Copper-tin-antimony alloy

Technique

Cast, lost-wax process

Dimensions

3.8 x 5.6 x 1.7 cm (1 1/2 x 2 3/16 x 11/16 in.)

Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Copper-Tin-Antimony Alloy:
Cu, 87.22; Sn, 1.33; Pb, 0.43; Zn, 0.09; Fe, 0.67; Ni, 0.27; Ag, 0.08; Sb, 8.08; As, 1.53; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, 0.299; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001

J. Riederer

Chemical Composition: XRF data from Artax 1 and Tracer
Alloy: Mixed Copper Alloy
Alloying Elements: copper, tin, antimony
Other Elements: lead, iron, nickel, silver, arsenic

K. Eremin, January 2014

Technical Observations: The patina is green with brown burial accretions and patches of blue. There are scattered spots of rust accretions. Several areas of the surface are well preserved, but most are obscured by corrosion products and accretions. The iron pin is corroded and lost; its only remnants are the rust and rust staining at the pin’s insertion point and on the horse’s face. The green and blue corrosion layers obscure most surface detail.

The quadruped is a solid cast. Its soft and somewhat irregular shapes point to a model made directly in wax. A hammer and elongated punches were used to make decorations at the ears and along the bottom edge. Facial features and decorations in the horse trappings appear to have been punched into the metal. Judging from the iron corrosion products, the hole for the pin at the horse’s hindquarters measures c. 4 mm in diameter.


Henry Lie (submitted 2012)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History

Kurt H. Weil, Montclair, NJ (1927-1992), by descent; to Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt, New York (1912-2023), gift; to the Harvard Art Museums.

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line

Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of Professor Kathleen Weil-Garris Brandt

Accession Year

2023

Object Number

2023.501.11

Division

Asian and Mediterranean Art

Contact

am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu

Permissions

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Publication History

• Katherine Eremin and Josef Riederer, "Analytical Approaches to Ancient Bronzes", Ancient Bronzes through a Modern Lens: Introductory Essays on the Study of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes, ed. Susanne Ebbinghaus, Harvard Art Museums (Cambridge, MA, 2014), 64-91, pp. 74-75, fig. 3.4.
• Susanne Ebbinghaus, ed., Ancient Bronzes through a Modern Lens: Introductory Essays on the Study of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes, Harvard Art Museum/Yale University Press (Cambridge, MA, 2014), p. 74, fig. 3.4

Subjects and Contexts

• Ancient Bronzes

Verification Level