A Statuette representing a Boy and Goose

Extract

The silver statuette which is described in the present paper, and which is represented in the accompanying Plate (A.), acquires a peculiar interest both from its subject and from the circumstances of its discovery. In the first aspect it belongs to an exceedingly numerous class; a boy struggling or playing with a goose seems to have been a very favourite subject with Greek artists of certain periods; the popularity of such representations and the frequency with which they were reproduced are testified by at least fifty extant examples in various galleries and museums throughout Europe. But though belonging to so numerous a family, our specimen differs considerably, both in character and in composition, from all its other members; not more, however, than many of these differ among themselves. Then again, this statuette was discovered together with a hoard of coins, and thus we are able to fix at least a posterior limit of date for the invention not only of the type we find in this figure, but also of all others which show an affinity to it so close as to compel us not to assign them to any very distant period. It is clear, therefore, that we have here an additional clew of no small importance, which may help in the solution of a problem that has already given rise to much controversy among archaeologists.