Lot 186

Iron Age Levant & Egypt - Votary Figure & Fish Jar, ex-Andrew C. Ware

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Lot 186
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Iron Age Levant & Egypt - Votary Figure & Fish Jar, ex-Andrew C. Ware
Iron Age Levant & Egypt - Votary Figure & Fish Jar, ex-Andrew C. Ware
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Iron Age Levant & Egypt - Votary Figure & Fish Jar, ex-Andrew C. Ware

Estimate: $700 - $1,050

Starting Bid: $250

(0 Bids)
by Artemis Fine Arts
August 7, 2026 9:00 AM MDT
Live Auction
686 S. Taylor Avenue
Suite 108
Louisville, CO, US 80027

Near East, Transjordan, Ammonite culture, ca. 9th to 7th century BCE; North Africa, Egypt, Late Dynastic to Ptolemaic period, ca. 664 to 30 BCE. A hand-modeled terracotta votary and a carved limestone kohl jar arrive as quiet testimony to two neighboring civilizations' devotional habits. The Ammonite pillar figure, in warm reddish-orange clay, follows a well-established Iron Age Levantine type: tapering columnar body, arms clasped at the chest, pinched facial features beneath a rounded disc headdress. Such figures served as household intercessors or votive offerings, addressed perhaps to a deity in the broader Canaanite-Aramaic orbit. Size of larger (figure): 2" D x 4.8" H (5.1 cm D x 12.2 cm H)

From the collection of Andrew Cunningham Ware, the companion vessel is a globular miniature jar turned from pale buff limestone on a low ring foot, with a small loop handle at the rim and a molded or incised relief fish covering much of the body. In Egyptian belief the fish carried associations with rebirth, the primordial waters, and protective goddesses of the Delta. Kohl jars of this form held the antimony-based eye paint central to Egyptian daily and funerary ritual, making them among the most intimate objects in any household or tomb assemblage.

Andrew Cunningham Ware (1945-2024) was a scholar and amateur Egyptologist who studied under Christiane Desroches Noblecourt, the French Egyptologist instrumental in the UNESCO campaign to relocate the temples of Abu Simbel. Dividing his years between France and South Florida, Ware built a collection that traced the arc of his curiosity: ancient Egyptian artifacts, revolutionary-era documents from France and Russia, and family heirlooms accumulated across a life spent in thoughtful pursuit of the past. He was the great-grandson of Andrew Woodbury Preston, a co-founder of the United Fruit Company, and the collection carries that same quality of a life lived across hemispheres, where objects of personal significance sit alongside those of historical consequence.

Provenance: private Colorado, USA collection; figure is ex-collection of Y. Kayvan, Los Angeles, California, USA, acquired from Barakat Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA gallery acquisition dates range from the late 1990s to 2005; jar is ex-Freeman's, Chicago, Illinois, USA, November 21, 2025, Sale 6402, "Antiquities, Fine, and Decorative Art: Including Property from the Estates of Andrew C. Ware and Iris C. Love," lot 78 (1 of 6); ex-Andrew Cunningham Ware Collection (1945–2024), South Florida, primarily formed in the 1990s-2000s

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Item # 202823

  • Condition: Hole to jar near base as well as chipping to rim and foot. Both have nicks, chips, and abrasions as shown. Otherwise, figure is intact and both have nice presentations with liberal remaining detail.

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Bid Increments
From: To: Increments:
$0 $299 $25
$300 $999 $50
$1,000 $1,999 $100
$2,000 $4,999 $250
$5,000 $9,999 $500
$10,000 $19,999 $1,000
$20,000 $49,999 $2,500
$50,000 $99,999 $5,000
$100,000 $199,999 $10,000
$200,000 + $20,000