Each panel is 139.2 x 65.1cm

In Ottoman society, silk fabrics became an important emblem of rank, wealth, and reward. The court encouraged production and it controlled quality. These two panels are a testimony to the sophistication of ketma designs. This pair is a remarkable Ottoman silk brocade that shows repeating patterned fields, incongruously combined with wide, monumental borders. The bright pink ground with an ogival lattice of gold strapwork joined with blue trefoil palmettes shows the complexity of the weave. The lattice enclosing ogival medallions with central floral sprays on gold ground surrounded by blue cloud-bands, around each medallion a border of blue-outlined white carnations. Some areas of wear, mounted.

Height: 26.5 x 17.5cm

An element from a muqarnas vault, the main arched panel deeply carved with scrolling tendrils linking flowerheads and palmettes within a plain white border. This beautifully glazed tile shows exquisite preservation with minute spots of retouching of the glaze.

H: 188 x W: 96 cm

This is a beautiful example of a Roman floor mosaic comprised of intersecting circles of tesserae or individual tiles of black, white, red and yellow. This mosaic is one of several fragments that formed part of an elaborate floor mosaic in a villa along the Tiber river.

Height: 20.6cm

The highly stylized oval face is depicted with high cheekbones and a long triangular nose. The sensitive workmanship is visible in the deep almond-shaped eyes with thick lids and stone inlay (one preserved). The pressing details and striking realism are accentuated by the arching brows that are shown deeply recessed with rows of small squares incised across the forehead and over the crown of his head.

This is an exceptionally rare example of a Roman capital herm. The artist here incers profuse decoration, which would have served no structural function, but gives some variety to the extenuated shaft. This piece would have formed the crowning member of a column or a pilaster and is called a herm due to the bust on both sides surmounted around the square stone pillar. The man represented is that of the deity Mercury or also know as Hermes in ancient Greek mythology. Mercury, in Roman mythology was a messenger of the gods, like his analogous Greek deity Hermes. The artist here has captured his powerful subject with a combination of fine details and subtle modeling, each used to impart texture or volume. Mercury is wearing his usual iconographic mark of the winged cap. His hair is in a mass of short curling locks, his brow heavy and furrowed. His large convex eyes are recessed and their lids are heavy and drilled inner canthi. The pure masculine strength of this figure is not only a tribute to the deity it represents, but also to the supreme functionality it is meant to fulfil.

H: 13 cm

This is possibly the head of a royal official, wearing a flaring double wig of striated locks radiating from the crown and tucked behind the ears. Framing the oval face, the eyebrows and elongated cosmetic lines are sculpted in raised relief and contour the figure’s wide set almond-shaped eyes. Made from polished black Granodiorite stone, which is a plutonic igneous rock. It was quarried by the ancient Egyptians at Aswan on the Nile River, also at Faiyum in the Western Desert (basalt) and lastly in the mountains of the Eastern Desert. This head may have been a fragment from a statue that once adorned a temple.

Ca. 2061 - 1971 B.C.

H: 144cm W: 17.5cm

The inscription reads: (member of the elite, high official, royal sealer), unique associate, gentle of arm, Khnumhotep’s son Mentuhotep.

In Roman mythology the goddess Pomona was the goddess of orchards, here we see her carrying “pomom” meaning fruit in latin which signifies the harvest. She gathers the fruit in her stola or overdress revealing her tunic and her bare arms.

Soft facial features are framed by a headband and suggests an elaborate hairstyle with curls gathered at the temples. The feet, right hand and back of the head are missing, but this is a particularly impressive and finely modeled marble sculpture of the goddess Pomona that is in a good state of preservation.

Eastern Roman Empire

H: 47.6cm

Beginning in the late sixth century B.C., funerary busts for the deceased middle-class were created for burial ornamentation throughout the Roman Empire.  Evolving through to the 2nd century A.D., they were designed as a half-statue representing the body from the waist up and were placed on or inside the tomb of the deceased.

This female bust reflects the originality of Roman funerary art. Unlike Greek models she is truncated at the waist and wears a thick cloak (himation) drawn over her head neatly framing her shoulders. Her pleated tunic is decorated with an elaborate border suspended by braids over her ‘v’ necked costume (chiton). The jewellery that adorns her body is intricate and suggests her high status in her community. She wears heavy pendant earrings in the form of vine leaves, a multi-lobed pendant necklace with a braided collar, along with a longer crescent shaped pendant necklace that hangs between her breasts.

This funerary bust functioned as an effigy and will now be remembered forever, as this grave marker has become a part of history and builds on our understanding of Roman burial traditions.

Anatolia was the Asiatic portion of contemporary Turkey. Geographically, the region extended from the Bosporus and Aegean coast eastward to the borders of the former Soviet Union, Iran and Iraq.

This region was extremely plentiful in mysterious sculpture for centuries and Anatolian idols are some of the most striking creations from this time. These idols have been found in wide variety of shapes (steatopygic, anthropomorphic, schematic, etc..) and were created in a variety of materials (stone, shell, bone etc..). All idols are highly stylized or abstracted human forms. This idol in particular is a rare example of the abstract anthropomorphic type which was fashioned quite frequently during this period. Its large ring shaped body unites on top with a surmounted semi-circular disc, which is pierced with two centralized holes, representing a greatly abstracted human form with head and eyes. These types of idols were intended for religious and/or funerary rituals.