Steelyard Weight

Description This rare, bronze counterweight was used with a steelyard. Filled with lead, it would have been moved along the calibrated arm of the scales until the beam balanced. This large weight is distinguished by its unusual subject of a young man in a long-sleeved tunic holding a small animal, possibly a lamb; it may therefore have been used by a butcher.

Provenance Michael Ward, New York, ca. 1977, by purchase; L. Alexander Wolfe, Jerusalem [date of acquisition unknown], by purchase; Sale, Frank Sternberg, Zurich, November 20, 1989, no. 423; Walters Art Museum, 1989, by purchase.

Credit Museum purchase, 1989