Minoan Bronze Statuette of a Lady
Middle Period, circa 1700-1450 B.C. With a small, stylised face with detailed eyes, nose and mouth; right hand raised to hold a child; wearing a flounced skirt with double belt; mounted on a custom-made display stand. See Comstock, M., Vermeule C., Greek, Etruscan & Roman Bronzes in the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, New York, 1971, p.4, no.1, for similar. 499 grams total, 16.5 cm high including stand (6 1/2 in.).

British private collection, acquired by 2000.From a collection acquired on the UK art market from various auction houses and collections mostly before 2000.From an important Cambridgeshire estate; thence by descent.

In the Dictean Cave in Greece, many votive statuettes of this type were found. The flounced skirt is characteristic of Minoan women's dress, and it was lavishly decorated in folds of different colours. It could be worn with or without a narrow corselet, but in both cases exposing the breast. The exposed breast was connected to the cult of the mother goddess, and fertility, an element here reinforced by the presence of the suckling child. [No Reserve]