Ca. 323 BC-395 AD. Graeco-Roman Period. A Greco-Egyptian ceramic head of a man. The piece is stunningly life-like. The man depicted has wavy locks, a short curly beard, and eyebrows painted black, while his skin is a red-ochre colour. His eyes are inlaid with black and white glass giving them a reflective quality, and they are outlined with blue for the kohl. Delicate strokes depicting the eyelashes descend from the eyes. It draws on Hellenistic art more than Egyptian. The rear was not made to look like the back of a head as one might expect in a free-standing statue, and instead this was attached at the back to some other ceramic form - the nature of which is not certain, as it has been broken off. The break leaves an area visible where the hair is attached to a ceramic structure decorated with some lines and geometric patterns. One possibility is that this was part of ceramic vessel of a Cypriot type which depicted a modelled face on the side of the container; Cyprus was long an important part of the Ptolemaic Empire and it was geographically situated very close to Alexandria, so several such vessels have been found in Egypt. Whether this means they were imported from Cyprus or their style was adopted by craftsmen within Greco-Roman Egypt is still debated. Size: L:230mm / W:195mm ; 1.7kg. Provenance: From a London private family collection; formerly acquired on the UK art market in the 1960s - 1970s; thence by descent.