Archaic Greek Marble Bust — 700-550 B.C.

greek, marble, bust, archaic

Most of the Greek marbles you’ve ever seen are actually Roman copies. This is emphatically not a Roman copy; they copied typically the Hellenic forms. This is, as stated in the title, Archaic Period. It’s what you’d use to trigger many episodes of Past Life Recall.

It is incredibly difficult to correctly determine the age of any marble sculpture; the rock is millions of years old, and that’s what it reads when tested; however, under microscopic examination, shards of bronze carving instruments can be detected in the crevices, particularly in the back of the piece. No forger would use bronze instruments to carve this, for two reasons — it’s too much trouble, and the piece is not expensive enough to justify the effort.

The hand is emphatically NOT that of a master sculptor. The piece is most certainly from a rustic village or small city, or from an itinerant unschooled carver, of which there were as many then as there are today. The streets abounded with hawkers of every kind, and if all you had was an iron or bronze tool and a rock you’d found nearby, you made what you could sell at the marketplace, and this is what I think we have here.

It has been expertly and cleanly museum-mounted on a modern hardwood base.

I especially like this piece; it came from a NYC auction sometime around 1959, when Lydia was managing the credit section and I was floor manager and Hans Ballin had taken over as buyer in the electronics department at Hammacher-Schlemmer’s on 57th Street.

I noticed the auction happening across the street and went over, bid on, and won, this amazing and wonderful marble bust.

Some “experts” don’t like to deal with these things because they ARE so hard to place and date. They prefer things like those things with which they are familar, the things they see over and over again. This is NOT the usual fare, and presents problems to rigid “experts” in the auction houses and galleries.

I use psychometry to guide myself in the acquisition of stone pieces, and this is definitely and profoundly ancient, with lots of personal history accumulated over time and through many variations of Timeline; it is a piece I’ve had in my pastel studio for about half a century, and it hasn’t failed me yet. It’s a terrific psychometric with the added touch of mystery and strangeness that is evoked by elements of the Archaic Period.

Hellenic sculpture is far more formal and heavily ruled by long-established custom. During the Archaic Period, these sculptural forms and regulations had not yet been laid down as law.

I’m showing this piece on the off-chance that the sight of it will provoke its rightful owner, the person who posed for this originally back in the days of ancient Greece, to restore it to their collection of Material Universe Objects of Daily Use.

Its haunting archaic smile is wonderful to behold; I really like this piece, and am putting a price on its head that reflects my special regard for this character from the past, yet is still within the range of “reasonable” for a limited antiquity buying budget. If you’re interested, you should first review what is currently on the market; you’ll soon see that there is nothing like this out there at any price.

$18,000