Lot 5458

Description

Etruscan, late Hellenistic period, bronze strigilis, length 25.5 cm., width 2.0 cm. With a small chip, otherwise very well preserved, surface somewhat corroded and without patination and includes a suitable plastic stand for support.

Ex Mark Marshan Collection. Lot also includes a description and athentication certificate by Dr. John-Paul Descoeudres (Archaelogist, formerly Sydney University), together with a Statutory Declaration on the item. See pottery piece in lot below of strigilis in use. The Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans made use of this hollow curved instrument to cleanse oil, sometimes mixed with abrasives, and dirt from their perspired bodies. The strigil was used by athletes, both before and after exercise or contests (the Apoxymenos sculpture portrays an athlete scraping himself), and by bathers, whose perspiration arose from either a hot water bath or the atmosphere in a dry room intensely heated to bring about sweat.