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Caduceus
Greek
Archaic Period
about 530 B.C.
Medium/Technique
Bronze
Dimensions
Length x width x depth: 39.3 × 7 × 1.8 cm (15 1/2 × 2 3/4 × 11/16 in.)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds donated by contribution
Accession Number01.7501
CollectionsAncient Greece and Rome
ClassificationsSculpture
Catalogue Raisonné
Greek, Etruscan, & Roman Bronzes (MFA), no. 646; Sculpture in Stone and Bronze (MFA), p. 127 (additional published references).
DescriptionIn the bronze top, rams' heads face each other after joining in a square knot and forming a loop which springs from a lotus palmette above two turned knobs with a tubular shaft between. The iron shaft or rod extends from this. The iron shaft is badly corroded and the bronze top is somewhat corroded. Light green patina.
ProvenanceWilliam Henry Forman (b. 1794 - d. 1869), Pippbrook House, Surrey; by descent, through his sister-in-law, Mrs. Burt, to his nephew, Major A. H. Browne, and in 1890 taken to Callaly Castle, Northumberland; July 2-5, 1900, posthumous Forman collection sale, Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge, London, included in lot 598, sold to "Ready," probably for Edward Perry Warren (b. 1860 -d. 1928), London [see note]; 1901, sold by Edward Perry Warren to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 1, 1901)
NOTE: Warren acquired a number of objects from this sale, including others that were sold, according to annotations in the catalogue, to "Ready."
NOTE: Warren acquired a number of objects from this sale, including others that were sold, according to annotations in the catalogue, to "Ready."