34. Spout or Finial: Lion’s Head Description This amber is worked in the shape of the head and neck of a ferocious lion. The head is almost perfectly square. In frontal view, the object is tubular. In profile, the face tapers toward the nose and chin. The supraorbital areas are plastically modeled, with fine ridges carved to represent the eyelids. The eye sockets are deep, hollow, and asymmetrical: the right one is higher and more circular than the left one, which is amygdaloidal in form. The sockets may originally have held inlaid eyes (ivory and amber?). The snout slopes down to a step above the short, rounded nose. The nares and nostrils are detailed with fine horizontal grooves. Two additional horizontal engraved lines, wrinkles, cross the bridge of the snout just above the nose. Four engraved diagonal lines rise from each side of the upper lip, wrinkling the lion’s muzzle. The philtrum Accession 76.AO.81 is indented. The mouth of the lion is a large, hollow cavity. Number The lips are drawn back tightly and undercut to reveal the Culture Etruscan gums; a full set of incisors and matched small teeth rim the mouth. Below are flaps of the jaw, marked with two Date 525–480 B.C. incised lines on each side at the front. The end of the Dimensions Height: 19.5 mm; width: 17 mm; depth: 20 mm; tongue protrudes and is slightly transluscent. Diameter of through-bore: 6.5 mm; Weight: 3.1 The back of the head, which is beveled, is larger in g circumference than the mane. The mane is a raised collar. Subjects Lion On the upper part of the head, the hanks of hair are rendered as long pinnate lobes, with shorter triangular Provenance fillers. On the underside, the mane is not detailed. The lion’s large ears commence at the back of the mane, lying –1976, Gordon McLendon (Dallas, TX), donated to the J. flat to the head and pointing straight backward. Paul Getty Museum, 1976. There are many tool marks. Incision lines mark the Condition wrinkles of the muzzle and the nose and the details of the mouth. Abrasion is evident on the back of the head and The object is intact, in very good condition, with minimal around the lower edge of the collar. Faint drill marks cracking and crazing overall. There are minute chips in remain inside the bore. the mane on the right side and behind the right eye, and Discussion more degraded small areas on the lower right side of the head, marked by a lighter yellow-ocher alteration area. In The style (and form) of the lion of 76.AO.81 is not closely ambient light, the object is dull brown; illuminated by paralleled by any other lion’s head. However, an amber transmitted light, it is ruby colored. No inclusions are lion pendant in London (British Museum 64), of unknown evident. provenance, bears a familial resemblance. Both look as if 225