CQ1 Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2023 Editorial of animals in Antiquity at our gallery on Malzgasse, Basel. It is always a pleasure to be able to welcome long-standing, loyal customers and collectors “at home," so to speak. While this issue of Cahn's Quarterly is being finalised, we are still at the last fair of the year, FAB in Paris. I wish you a joyful festive season. If you are still look- ing for a Christmas present, you may find something suitable in the sales catalogue at the end of this issue! Dear readers When I look back on the year, the wonder- ful project with Portuguese artist Francisco Tropa, staged this summer during Art Ba- sel, stands out as a highlight (see pp. 5-7 of this issue). In this project, the collaboration between the artist and myself was particu- larly close and I even visited him at his studio in Lisbon. The idea of the gaze and its relationship to the other world in analo- gy to Plato's Allegory of the Cave emerged in the course of numerous conversations. In Basel, Francisco selected three ancient heads onto which he projected polished crystals. We noticed that the gaze of the two Roman private portraits was directed into the other world, into the cave. We set up these heads in the skylight room of the Cahn Kunstraum. In contrast, the Herm of Dionysus from the Greek Classical period fixes the viewer with its gaze. We placed this sculpture in the dark, windowless room below, with a chair in front of it, so that people could engage in a silent visual dia- logue with the god. The exhibition was well attended and had an impressive finissage, in which a sculp- ture by Francisco Tropa, consisting of hanging pieces of meat cast in bronze, was turned into a resonating body. The experi- mental music group Osso Exótico, to which the artist belongs, created a soundscape that was quiet at first and then became in- creasingly intense. There was a large audi- ence, which thanks to the involvement of Michi Zaugg, a well-known figure in the Basel music scene, included many young people. Thus encouraged, we have started a collab- oration with Pierre Sugier, the former cura- tor of the Fondation Fernet-Branca. A first exhibition with works by French photogra- pher Jean-Christophe Ballot and Iranian artist Saba Niknam was staged this autumn at the Cahn Kunstraum. We will feature this show in the next issue of Cahn's Quarter- ly. Further exhibitions will follow, to which you will be invited in due course. We took part in numerous art fairs this summer and autumn. In July, we exhibit- English Edition ed at the Treasure House Fair in London. Like Mas- terpiece before it, the fair was held in the park of the Royal Chelsea Hospi- tal. The logistics, set-up and atmosphere were very pleasant. Summer in Lon- don is simply wonderful! Furthermore, the organis- ers worked a minor mira- cle: the fair visitors were once again the educated, curious British public that we got to know many years ago at the Grosver- nor House Fair. In September, we took part in the OPUS Art Fair in Paris. This specialised ar- chaeology fair took place in a beautiful, slightly run- down industrial building in the Marais. The charm- ing, collegial atmosphere reminded me of the fairs of my youth. Good, interna- tional exhibitors with a lot of idealism took part and we were able to achieve a surprisingly good result. The fair is still new, but it is well on the way to establishing itself as THE salon for archaeology. It aims to reach such a level that it will be worth travelling to Paris for the sole purpose of visiting it. In October, we exhibited at Munich High- lights. This art fair in the Munich Residenz is organised along the same lines as a ma- jor trade fair, but is unable to develop and expand due to a lack of understanding on the part of the state authorities. As a result, it is very cost-intensive. It would be desira- ble for Munich Highlights to grow, because Munich is absolutely the right location for a fair featuring ancient art, classical mod- ern art and contemporary art in Germany. After so many trips abroad, I really en- joyed our traditional November exhibition Our stand at OPUS Art Fair, Paris.CQ Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2023 2 Discovered for you Time to Reboot On the Iron Age in Greece northern central Greece to the depopulated Peloponnese; secondly, the Ionian movement from Athens, Attica, Achaea and Messenia to Asia Minor, where the Mycenaeans had already settled (CQ 2/2022, p. 3); and thirdly, the Aeoli- an translocation from Boeotia and Thessaly to northern Asia Minor. At their destination, the migrants founded new settlements such as Old Smyrna, 1050 B.C., an Aeolian city inhabited some 350 years later by around 2000 people. Contacts between neighbouring peoples were close and trade flourished again. The emer- gence of a new writing system was literally in the air. Around 800 B.C., the Greeks adopted the script of the Phoenicians (Levant) which contained symbols for consonants only and added letters for vowels in order to adapt it to the spoken language. Thus the Greek al- phabet was born. The earliest examples of the new script are the prize inscription on the Di- pylon jug (ca. 740 B.C.) and the three-line in- scription on Nestor’s Cup from Pithekoussai/ Ischia (ca. 720 B.C.) which refers to the Iliad. The Late Bronze Age period of decline to- wards the end of the 2nd millenium B.C. was followed by a period of renewal in Ancient Greece. The first signs of revival can be dis- cerned as early as the Dark Ages (1050-800 B.C.) in the flourishing of the princely seat of Lefkandi on Euboea around 1000 B.C., which remained unparalleled at the time (CQ 1/2023, pp. 8-9). What was the situation elsewhere? After the decline of the Mycenaean palaces, many left the country in search of better living condi- tions, and a lengthy process of migration en- sued. Our knowledge about this phenomenon remains fragmentary, but some routes have been reconstructed with the help of linguis- tic research. The distribution of dialects in the Classical period, as illustrated in fig. 1, sheds light on earlier periods. There were four dia- lects: Doric-Northwestern, Ionian-Attic, Ae- olian and Arcadian Greek. Three migratory movements can be discerned in the 11th cen- tury B.C.: firstly, the Dorian migration from Homer wrote the Iliad and Odyssey in around 740-730 B.C. and 700 B.C. respectively, thereby giving the stories that rhapsodes had long been handing down orally their definitive form. In addition to relating mythological tales and the dramatic fate of the heroes of the Trojan War, these epic poems reflect the self-image, customs and religion of the social elite of the time. This privileged class owned farmland and herds of cattle; in addition to the family, their household (oikos) included unfree dependants. Persons of equal rank invited each other to banquets and and took part in sports compe- titions, though they also waged war against each other. In view of its material value, striking size and decoration, the garment pin offered here by the Cahn Gallery probably belonged to an aristocratic outfit (fig. 2). The very well-pre- served, long pin with rectangular cross-sec- tion is adorned with a large spherical ap- plique framed by profiled edges and beads, with a flat disc as terminus. The craftsman adorned the rectangular element between the pin head and the needle with incised and punched decoration. Numerous bronze pins of this type as well as fibulae are known, mainly from burial contexts. The reliability of the epics as historical sources is the subject of ongoing debate. The Homeric Fig. 2: A LONG PIN WITH DECORATIVE SPHERE. L. 17.7 cm. Bronze. Greek, Late Geometric, late 8th-1st half 7th cent. B.C. CHF 1,600 Fig. 1: The geographical distribution of the dialects of ancient Greek in the Classical era. After R. D. Woodard, "Greek Dialects," in The Ancient Languages of Europe (Cambridge 2008) 50. © Future Perfect at Sunrise, Isssabellla, Wikimedia Commons By Gerburg LudwigCQ Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2023 3 Fig. 3: A FRAGMENT OF AN OINOCHOE WITH AN- TILOPES AND SWANS. H. 20.5 cm. Clay. Attic, Late Geometric, last quarter 8th cent. B.C. CHF 5,600 Question addresses the issue of whether Hom- er actually composed the Iliad and Odyssey and whether the poems are the work of a sin- gle or several authors. The historicity of the Trojan War is also a topic of discussion. In his didactic poem Works and Days, Hesiod (born ca. 700 B.C.), describes the rural life of which he had first-hand knowledge, writing rules for life and touching on ethical topics. His work thus enriches our picture of Iron Age society. Both authors name the material that gave the new era its name: iron (sidēros). The earliest evidence for the smelting of iron ore was found in Hittite Central Anatolia and dates from the 2nd millennium B.C. Iron finds and techniques such as the extraction of iron that were spread by travelling craftsmen are documented by the beginning of the 1st millennium B.C., if not before, for instance in the southern Levant. In the Late Bronze Age, iron was still a prestig- ious material and used first to make weapons, gradually replacing or being combined with bronze. The advantage of iron was that only one raw material was required for its produc- tion, and that the sources for iron ore were closer and more plentiful. Furthermore, the end product was easier to process. The ques- tion along which routes the transfer of tech- nology took place has been debated repeatedly due to new findings. It appears that the tech- niques reached the motherland via Cyprus and the new settlements in Ionia. New iron-work- ing centres that exploited the iron ore deposits closer to home, such as those in Crete, Argolis, Attica, western and northern Greece, emerged in the 10th century B.C. In addition to iron, pottery became particu- larly important in the Geometric period, de- veloping from ca. 1050–900 B.C. onwards. The vessels produced in this time span are termed Proto-Geometric. Initially, they were only sparsely decorated with individual orna- ments such as circles and stripes. New vessel forms such as amphorae, oinochoai and sky- phoi were rather squat at first, but gradual- ly became more elongated. The ornamental vocabulary became increasingly rich, varied and dense. The maeander established itself as the typical ornament of the period. Human and animal figures appeared for the first time since the Bronze Age around 800 B.C.. The scenes representing the laying out of the dead (prothesis) and the funeral procession (ek- phora) on the famous monumental funerary vessels of Athens (Late Geometric, 750 B.C.) are especially remarkable. Similarly striking are the long-legged human figures with tri- angular torsos and plaintively raised arms, as well as the chariot teams with thin-legged horses or warriors with large Boeotian shields in silhouette manner. The fragment of an Attic oinochoe offered for sale by the Cahn Gallery (fig. 3) also dates from this period and is lavishly dec- orated with ornaments and figural “win- dows." It belonged to a rather large, bulbous wine jug. The shoulder and large parts of the vessel's belly are decorated with zigzag bands, lozenges, line friezes and rosettes, ar- ranged in a grid formed by horizontal and vertical lines. The figures in silhouette, re- cumbent antelopes and swans with a cyg- net, surrounded by filling ornaments, are particularly eye-catching. Towards the end of the century, the Orien- talising style with animal friezes and rich, sometimes floral ornamentation replaced the Geometric style. New settlements, the revival of trade, the development of the alphabet and the mastery of iron technology were among the achievements of the Geometric period and laid the foundations for further prosperi- ty and new political developments. A graduate with a Master’s degree in Classical Studies, my research focused on the universe of Western Greek ceramics, in particular on the mythological and divine representations by Asteas, a painter active in Paestum in the 4th century B.C. I was particularly interested in the social reception of these depictions by the Greeks, Etruscans and Italic peoples at the time. I then continued my studies by special- ising in orphan archaeological items on the classical antiquity art market. Orphans are works of art that lack documentary evidence such as export licenses, invoices, old photo- graphs and other records. In 2022, I joined the team at the Cahn Gallery, my principal mission being to create a Provenance Depart- ment. By bringing together, classifying and recording the extensive archives available in The Debate Provenance: Reconstructing a Fragmented Past By Charlotte Chauvier Fig. 1: THE UPPER PART OF A HANDLE OF A HYDRIA WITH LION PROTOMES. W. 10.7 cm. Bronze. Laconian, mid-6th century B.C. CHF 2,800CQ Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2023 4 Imprint Publisher Jean-David Cahn Malzgasse 23 CH-4052 Basel www.cahn.ch ISSN 2624-6368 Editors Jean-David Cahn Yvonne Yiu Authors Jean-David Cahn Charlotte Chauvier Ulrike Haase Detlef Kreikenbom Gerburg Ludwig Jocelyn Wolff Photos Martin Argyroglo Niklaus Bürgin Ulrike Haase Design and Layout Michael Joos Yvonne Yiu lot 225 (fig. 3) in the catalogue of the Münzen und Medaillen AG Auction no. 51, that was held in March 1975. The catalogue contains handwritten notes by Herbert A. Cahn specify- ing the lot number, estimate (CHF 3000/3200), consigner’s code (PL77), buyer’s name (Hier- onymus) and hammer price (CHF 2200). This is corroborated by the Münzen und Medaillen AG client’s card, which records the items that Mr Hieronymus bought at that auction (March 1975, A 51: 172, 225) as well as their total price (fig. 4). It certainly is rewarding to put effort into provenance research and to recon- struct a fragmented past! A digital database that would make all doc- uments available on a single platform and thus facilitate research in our archives would be highly desirable. This is, however, an am- bitious undertaking that requires time and courage. For this reason, we would welcome job applications from trainees who would assist us with our provenance research. We hope to start working on this project next year and look forward to sharing our discov- eries with you. Fig. 3: Münzen und Medaillen AG Auction no. 51, March 1975, lot 225. Handwritten notes by Herbert A. Cahn with lot number, estimate, consigner’s code, buyer’s name and hammer price. Fig. 4: Münzen und Medaillen AG client’s card record- ing the purchases made by Mr Hieronymus. Fig. 2: Widmer negative envelope with handwritten notes: dealer’s name, negative number and date. the company we hope to be able to reconstruct the fragmented history of art works. The Cahn Gallery, which has a history spanning four generations, is eminently suited to this under- taking as it has extensive archives including those of the Münzen und Medaillen AG (1942- 1988) and the H.A.C. AG (1988-1999). Our method, which is called Forensic, con- sists in investigating archaeological objects carefully and attempting to reconstruct their provenance by studying all the documenta- tion available. This includes administrative documents such as purchase receipts, sales records and consignment contracts for auc- tion sales. Unfortunately, these documents often paint only a fragmentary picture. Be- fore 2005, records had to be kept for only ten years and one day to comply with Swiss commercial law and many documents were discarded after the specified period. Not until the end of the last century did the art mar- ket, particularly in the field of antiquities, be- come aware of the importance of scrupulous record-keeping. The question of provenance was the main topic at the 13th International Congress of Classical Archaeology in Berlin that was held from 24-30 July 1988. Further- more, the European Directive No. 92-1477 of 31 December 1992 established a uniform system of forms for export licenses and pass- ports, though the handling and time need- ed to get the permit varies from country to country. In Switzerland, it took more than 10 years for the legislation to follow. The Swiss Federal Act on the International Transfer of Cultural Property that came into force on 1 June 2005 was an answer to both the Eu- ropean Directive of 1992 and the UNESCO Convention of 1972. It made it compulsory to keep records on items of cultural property for thirty years, bringing Switzerland into line with the above-mentioned standards. If we are lucky, we can trace the provenance of certain objects as far back as 1942, the year in which Münzen und Medaillen AG was founded by Herbert A. Cahn. But in most cases, there is no photograph and the admin- istrative documents are very cursory, mak- ing an identification difficult. That all publi- cations by Herbert A. Cahn and Jean-David Cahn have been preserved is tremendously helpful. These include sales catalogues, stock catalogues, fair lists, exhibition ledgers, pro- spectuses and invitation cards. In addition to this, library catalogues enable us to trace the purchases of former customers as well as the location of the art works. Herbert A. Cahn was scrupulous about documenting all the art works that passed through his hands. Today, we benefit greatly both from his picture ar- chive with photographs of the objects made by Dieter Widmer and from his customer cards which recorded the purchases made by his cli- ents, often over the course of many years. A further archive with the correspondence of Herbert A. Cahn is also of great importance, as it records not only commercial but also schol- arly discussions on specific subjects between him and other archaeologists and dealers. These in-house archives are supplemented by the archives of several other dealers in ancient art that we have bought in recent years. This mass of material will hopefully be able to shed light on the provenance of many art works. To achieve this, many hours of work will be necessary, and I am more than happy to begin studying this vast corpus of information. There have been some interesting discover- ies already. For instance, whilst studying an Archaic bronze handle of a hydria (fig. 1) that we had recently acquired, I realised that more of its provenance was documented than mentioned in the sales catalogue. In the pho- tographic archive, which is organized accord- ing to the typology of works commonly used in archaeology, we found the negative of the photograph of the handle. On its protective envelope (fig. 2), the photographer Dieter Wid- mer had recorded the dealer’s name (Cahn), negative number (6571), and date (January 1975). By searching through all the catalogues around this date, I found the object, listed as We are now selling catalogues published by Jean-David Cahn AG, H.A.C. Kunst der Antike and Münzen und Medaillen AG. For further information please contact Charlotte Chauvier: charlotte.chauvier@cahn.chCQ Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2023 5 Cahn Kunstraum Francisco Tropa, The RM Enigma Jocelyn Wolff and Jean-David Cahn invited Portugese artist Francisco Tropa to exhibit his most recent work, The RM Enigma , at the Cahn Kunstraum from 12-30 June 2023. For this solo show that coincided with Art Basel, the artist also created an installation including ancient sculptures. A Dialectical Respiration By Jocelyn Wolff We like to create a certain vertigo in our pro- jects. This exhibition is part of a significant se- ries of projects involving the Galerie Jocelyn Wolff and the Cahn Gallery, with each project exploring the complex relationship between contemporary art and archaeology. The aim of these confrontations and dia- logues is to refresh our gaze; for audiences who have followed the history of art over the past few decades, the mysterious aura of archaeological objects enables striking new readings and mises en abyme; the same is true for the enlightened archaeology enthu- siast, who will see in contemporary creations objects that in their involuntary esotericism are difficult to apprehend. The Awakening of the Sculptures By Jean-David Cahn When I look at a work by Francisco, I come to realise that appearances are deceptive. They move in multiple directions. Everything is pre- sent at the same time and with no chronology. There is no visual hierarchy. This disconcerting arrangement of objects creates the illusion that one has nothing to do with the other. An ob- ject that we know to be soft and fleshly appe- ars in bronze. Heavy matter floats in the air, hanging from a thread. These assemblages are positioned in a pluralistic system that forces the spectator to look. The gaze on the object is key. Francisco invites us to look at the faces of the past, which themselves are gazing at indefi- nite space. The light beam of the installation projects their silhouettes onto the wall, framed by crystals. An allusion to Plato’s cave. Is it a gaze towards the afterlife or towards the ab- solute? A gaze across time? The moment of looking interrupts eternity. We are open to any interpretation. Thus, by referring to the imagination, the moment becomes immaterial. Francisco plays with the immaterial projection of light onto a stone object, itself material, to create an illusion by means of the gaze. The gaze has a numinous power. Here, it is the face of Dionysus, the god of the after- life and the unconscious, that looks at us. We recall that the gaze is his attribute. His eyes adorn the Greek ships that part the seas on Attic cups, a red sea like wine that makes one sway and in which one can drown. Those eyes look at us when we drink. A herm of Dionysus, an object that served as a protective monu- ment marking the border of his sanctuary, was chosen for the installation in the basement. It refers to the experience of the cave, of mys- tery, of the enigmatic. This numinous power awakens the moment we look at it. It is the moment in which the past and the present become one, simultaneous. Time stops. With his installations, Francisco creates a nature morte which, in German, is not dead at all, but life brought to a stand- still, Stillleben or still life, evoking the frozen instant. For me, that brief awakening of the sculptures was an unexpected experience. Since Francisco Tropa’s work emerges from the dialectical respiration between the tradi- tional materials of sculpture (bronze, stone, etc.) and the classical devices of Western art (trompe-l’oeil, composition) on the one hand, and, on the other, contributions from concep- tual art or the use of techniques that blur the status of the object in the field of sculpture – the direct projection of objects, for exam- ple, transforms them into images rather than shadows – it might even be described as a paroxysm of the dialogue between archaeol- ogy and contemporary art. But it is also possible that having passed the tipping point, the confrontation reverts to a natural simplicity, a harmonious, more liter- ary relationship, and with it the emergence of new metaphors.CQ7CQ Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2023 8 New Artworks Monthly on www.cahn.ch Splendour from Antiquity A STATUETTE OF HARPOCRATES. H. 4 cm. Silver-plated copper alloy. Egyptian, Late Pe- riod, 664-332 B.C. CHF 2,800 GOLD RING WITH INTAGLIO (HERMES). H. 2.3 cm. Gold, lapis lazuli. Greek, Mediter- ranean region, 3rd-2nd cent. B.C. CHF 3,800 AN INTAGLIO WITH A GOAT. W. 1.3 cm. Chalcedony. Formerly Herbert A. Cahn, Basel, 1990s. Roman, 1st-2nd cent. A.D. CHF 700 A BLACK-GLAZED OINOCHOE. H. 24.8 cm. Clay, black glaze. Greek, probably Attic, 5th-4th cent. B.C. CHF 3,400 A SMALL TUREEN. H. 8.5 cm. Clay. Former- ly priv. coll. Dr. Siegried Zimmer. Thereafter priv. coll. F. T., Baden-Württemberg, Germa- ny, acquired from Hirsch, Auction sale 228, 2003, lot 397. Silesia (Poland), Lusatian Cul- ture, Bronze to Iron Age, ca. 1300-500 B.C. CHF 2,800 A BLACK-GLAZED KANTHAROS. H. (without handles): 10.5 cm. Clay, black glaze. Formerly priv. coll. Gérard Lüll, Basel; acquired from Münzen und Medaillen A.G., Basel according to a list dating 1982. Thence by descent in the family. Western Greek, 4th cent. B.C. CHF 1,500 A STATUETTE OF THE DRUNKEN HERAKLES. H. 8.9 cm. Silver. Late Hellenistic, 1st cent. B.C.-1st cent. A.D. CHF 16,000 PAIR OF GOLD BRACELETS WITH SNAKE'S HEADS. Inner Dm. max. 5.3 cm and 5.5 cm. H. 6.0 cm and 6.2 cm. Gold. Greek, 3rd cent. B.C. CHF 8,800 A CROSS PENDANT WITH INLAYS. H. 5.2 cm (incl. hook). Gold, green agate, glass, garnet. Formerly priv. coll. Germany, before 2011. Byzantine, 6th-9th cent. A.D. CHF 12,000CQ Cahn’s Quarterly 2/2023 9 A RIBBED BOWL. H. 6.8 cm. Yellowish and white glass. Formerly Christopher Sheppard, London art market until 1980. With a New York art gallery until 1990. Priv. Coll. Mar- tin Wunsch, New York, 1980s-1990s. Roman, 1st-2nd cent. A.D. CHF 5,500 A STATER, ARGOS AMPHILOCHIKON. 10 g. Sil- ver. Formerly art market Frankfurt, 2007. Greek, Argos Amphilochikon, 270 B.C. CHF 600 A RIBBED BOWL. Dm. 15.6 cm. H. 4.2 cm. Greenish glass. Slight rainbow iridescence. For- merly Collection Carl Leonhard Burckhardt (1902-1965), acquired before 1966. Thence by descent. Roman, 1st cent. A.D. CHF 5,800 A PAIR OF GOLD EARRINGS WITH CHAL- CEDONY. L. (with hooks) 3.8 cm. Gold, bluish chalcedony. Formerly priv. coll. Mr L.. Roman, 1st-2nd cent. A.D. CHF 2,200 A PAIR OF GOLD EARRINGS WITH GARNETS. L. 3.8 cm. Gold, garnet, emerald (or green glass). Formerly priv. coll. Germany, ca. 1972. Roman, 3rd cent. A.D. CHF 5,600 AN ORNATE GOLD BRACELET. Diam. (max.) 7.9 cm. Gold. Formerly priv. coll. M. C. and R. C.-Burckhardt, Basel. Late Roman, 3rd-4th cent. A.D. CHF 3,800 A TWISTED GOLD BRACELET WITH HINGED CLOSURE. W. 6.1 cm. Gold. Formerly English priv. coll., acquired in the late 1990s from John Moor, York, U.K. Roman, 3rd cent. A.D. CHF 5,800 ROMAN PERIOD GOLD AND GLASS BRACELET. Dm. 7.3 cm. Glass, gold. Formerly coll. Petra Schamelmann, Breitenbach, Germany, acquired from the collection of Fernand Adda, formed in the 1920s. Thereafter priv. coll. London. Roman, 3rd-5th cent. A.D. CHF 3,800 A PAIR OF GOLD EARRINGS WITH GAR- NETS AND GLASS BEADS. H. 3 cm. Gold, garnet, glass. Formerly priv. coll. Mr L.; lis- ted in an inventory dated July 1982. Roman, 2nd-3rd cent. A.D. CHF 2,400 A PAIR OF GOLD EARRINGS WITH CARNE- LIAN. L. 3.6 cm. Gold, carnelian. With Coins and Antiquities Ltd., undated catalogue (bet- ween 1975 and 1978), no. 60, AN 821. Ro- man, 1st-2nd cent. A.D. CHF 2,400 AN ARYBALLOS. H. 9 cm. Aubergine and greenish glass. Formerly priv. coll. Peter Boe- hm, Larchmont, New York. Thereafter priv. coll. Nicolas Christol, Switzerland. Roman, 2nd-3rd cent. A.D. CHF 3,400Next >