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Identification and Creation

Object Number
1920.44.224
Title
Seal with Bird Figure
Classification
Seals
Work Type
seal
Date
8th century BCE
Places
Creation Place: Ancient & Byzantine World, Europe, Argolis
Period
Geometric period
Culture
Greek
Persistent Link
https://hvrd.art/o/303859

Physical Descriptions

Medium
Bronze
Technique
Cast, lost-wax process
Dimensions
4.3 x 3.5 cm (1 11/16 x 1 3/8 in.)
Technical Details

Chemical Composition: ICP-MS/AAA data from sample, Bronze:
Cu, 88.07; Sn, 10.43; Pb, 0.63; Zn, 0.033; Fe, 0.13; Ni, 0.03; Ag, 0.12; Sb, 0.07; As, 0.49; Bi, less than 0.025; Co, less than 0.005; Au, less than 0.01; Cd, less than 0.001

J. Riederer

Technical Observations: 1952.41 has been stripped of corrosion products, and the surface is now slightly oxidized bright metal and very pitted, with black material in the pitted areas. The right rear leg is broken and dislocated at the knee. The other stamps (1920.44.224, 1966.108, and 1987.33) are mostly green with areas of red. 1966.108 is mostly mineralized and the surface has been cleaned, leaving scrape marks in many areas. The tail is lost. 1920.44.224 has most of its rough corrosion products intact. The tip of the beak is lost. 1987.33 is broken and crudely repaired at the post under the left bird and the strut between their necks. Portions of both birds’ tails are lost.

All of the stamps appear to have been modeled directly in wax prior to casting. No evidence of metal joins is visible. The large horse’s (1952.41) base appears to have been constructed from strips of wax rather than pierced from a wax sheet. The strut between the bird pair (1987.33) projects through the neck on the right bird and was probably set into holes in the necks in the wax model.


Henry Lie (submitted 2001)

Provenance

Recorded Ownership History
Miss Elizabeth Gaskell Norton, Boston, MA and Miss Margaret Norton, Cambridge, MA (by 1920), gift; to the Fogg Art Museum, 1920.

Note: The Misses Norton were daughters of Charles Elliot Norton (1827-1908).

Acquisition and Rights

Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Gift of the Misses Norton
Accession Year
1920
Object Number
1920.44.224
Division
Asian and Mediterranean Art
Contact
am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu
Permissions

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Descriptions

Published Catalogue Text: Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Bronzes at the Harvard Art Museums
This stylized bird sits on a single pierced rod attached to a circular base that was used as a stamp seal. The bird is undecorated with the exception of three faint incised rings visible around the lower portion of the neck. Although the bird’s head is featureless and the tip of its beak is broken off, its plump body and squared-off tail suggest that this is a water bird, perhaps a duck. The bird’s legs merge into a short, four-sided post that tilts slightly forward and has a transverse hole at its upper end. The post terminates in a round base whose upper side is plain, while its underside bears a cross within a circle in high relief that is separated from an outer relief circle by a shallow groove (1).

This bird stamp seal has the harmonious proportions and soft lines typical of the Argive Geometric style of cast bronze figurines (2). J. Boardman believes that only bronze seals with designs rendered in intaglio were actually employed for impression in soft materials like wax or clay (3). Those with patterns in relief, like the Harvard example, were probably decorative imitations inspired by true seal forms. This seal could have been worn suspended as a necklace or belt ornament, or it may have stood alone on its base. However, there are far too few known impressions of seals like this one, nor examples of the seals themselves, to support this assertion. This object was probably intended as a votive object as well as a stamp (4).

NOTES:

1. On single bird pendants on bases, see I. Kilian-Dirlmeier, Anhänger in Griechenland von der mykenischen bis zur spätgeometrischen Zeit, Prähistorische Bronzefunde 11.2 (Munich, 1979) 160-82, nos. 947-1104, pls. 51-58; see esp. no. 1075, pl. 57 (from Tegea with a relief cross in a circle on the base); ead., Kleinfunde aus dem Athena Itonia-Heiligtum bei Philia (Thessalien) (Mainz, 2002) nos. 952-57, pl. 62; and U. Sinn, “Ein Fundkomplex aus dem Artemis-Heiligtum von Lusoi im Badischen Landesmuseum,” Jahrbuch der Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen in Baden-Württemberg 17 (1980): 25-40, esp. 28-30, figs. 4-5.

2. On workshop styles of Geometric-period birds, see J. Bouzek, “Die griechisch-geometrischen Bronzevögel,” Eirene 6 (1967): 115-39, esp. fig. 5. Also see W.-D. Heilmeyer, Frühe olympische Bronzefiguren: Die Tiervotive, Olympische Forschungen 12 (Berlin, 1979) 185-90, pls. 118-20.

3. On Greek seals with intaglio or relief patterns, see J. Boardman, Island Gems: A Study of Greek Seals in the Geometric and Early Archaic Periods (London, 1963) 155-56.

4. For a complementary discussion on the function of Geometric-period seal pendants, see Kilian-Dirlmeier 1979 (supra 1) 40.


Tamsey Andrews and David G. Mitten

Subjects and Contexts

  • Ancient Bronzes

Verification Level

This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently revised and enhanced. For more information please contact the Division of Asian and Mediterranean Art at am_asianmediterranean@harvard.edu