Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Copper:
Cu, 98.84; Sn, less than 0.25; Pb, 0.1; Zn, 0.011; Fe, 0.03; Ni, 0.28; Ag, 0.16; Sb, less than 0.05; As, 0.56; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, 0.02; Au, less than 0.02; Cd, less than 0.002
J. Riederer
Chemical Composition: XRF data from Tracer
Alloy: Copper
Alloying Elements: copper
Other Elements: lead, iron, nickel, silver, arsenic
K. Eremin, January 2014
Technical Observations: The patina ranges from reddish-brown cuprite to a more pitted green and brown. A dent in the back rim of the basket appears to contain a large amount of light brown wax, which resulted from waxing the surface, and some blue azurite corrosion products.
This peg is a solid cast made in a two-part mold that was poorly aligned, as can be seen from the raised seam lines visible along the sides of the figure. There does not seem to have been much effort made to remove the seam lines, which suggests that this was perhaps not an object of the highest quality. The modeling is also relatively simple, with practically no definition of musculature. There are no undercuts. The texture of the rope and the features of the face and ears are crudely defined and finished; the faceting was clearly created with a chisel. On the other hand, the surface of the figure has been heavily cleaned to remove disfiguring corrosion products, which has resulted in an overall smoothing of the surface. It is difficult to determine how representative the current surface is of the original modeling, given the extent of work that was done to reclaim the surface. This work seems to account for the file marks and other abrasive marks that can be found overall.
Francesca G. Bewer (submitted 2011)