France, 18th century Bacchus Allegorical figure in carved ivory Standing on a later blackened wooden base, with a paper label and an ink number "11". H.18 cm (7 in.) H. (total): 23.5 cm (9 ¼ in.) Provenance: Former English private collection. A carved ivory allegorical figure of Bacchus, French, 18th century Authorised for sale in the European Union. Autorisation to sell within the EU. *Information for buyers: If you are leaving the EU, you may need to obtain a CITES re-export certificate, which is the responsibility of the future buyer. *Information to the buyers : For an exit from the EU, a CITES re-export certificate will be necessary, at the buyer's expense. From Antiquity to the present day, the theme of the Four Seasons has been dear to artists and is generally represented in the form of allegories that are easily recognisable by their attributes. Artists referred to collections that defined the representation of each allegory, such as Iconologia overo Descrittione Dell'imagini Universali cavate dell'Antichite et da altri luoghi by the Italian Cesare Ripa (Perougia, c.1560 - Rome, c.1622), first published in 1593 in Italy and in 1644 and 1766 in France. From a stylistic point of view, the elongated face, the large, expressionless eyes, the dynamism and the freshness of the details in the lot we are presenting here are typical of 18th-century Dieppe production and can be compared with the models of Jean-Antoine Belleteste (1731-1811) (see P. Malgouyres, Ivoires du musée du Louvre 1480-1850, une collection inédite, Somogy éditions d'art, Paris, 2005, pp. 140-3). Provenance: Private collection, United Kingdom