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LOT 0255
Achaemenid Gold Ring with Agate Bull
CIRCA 500 B.C.
1 in. (4.71 grams, 27.98 mm overall, 19.07 mm internal diameter (approximate size British N, USA 6 1/2, Europe 13.72, Japan 13)).
Comprising a round-section swivel ring set with a carved Apis bull depicted recumbent with its head turned to the right.
ProvenancePrivate collection, UK.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12939-245988.
For similar see Musée du Louvre, Paris: AF 11092 and N 2090; The British Museum: 1947,1011.2 and 1918,0411.15; Metropolitan Museum of Art: 30.8.418, and the Fitzwilliam Museum: E.GA.21.1947.
FootnotesThe Apis bull was a sacred animal in ancient Egyptian religion, worshipped as a living manifestation of the god Ptah and later associated with Osiris and Ra. Regarded as an intermediary between the gods and humanity, the Apis bull was chosen based on specific physical characteristics, such as a black coat with unique white markings. Once identified, it was housed in a grand temple in Memphis, where it was treated with great reverence, adorned with jewellery, and participated in important religious ceremonies. Upon its death, the bull underwent elaborate mummification and burial rituals, symbolising its transition to the afterlife and its continued divine role. The cult of the Apis bull highlights the Egyptians’ deep connection to animals as symbols of divine power and their belief in the interconnectedness of the mortal and spiritual worlds.
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 0255
Achaemenid Gold Ring with Agate Bull
Estimate £5,000 - 7,000€5,800 - 8,120 (for guidance only)$6,750 - 9,450 (for guidance only)
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Very Large West Central Asian Bronze Stamp Seal Matrix with Stepped Cross
Circa 2300-2000 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £156
Square in plan with chevron handle, openwork stepped saltire design. 79 grams, 60 mm
Ex collection of a late London gentleman, 1990s. -
Western Asiatic Pale Stone Bead Necklace String
1st millennium B.C. and laterSold for (Inc. bp): £46
Mixed group of beads in alternating sizes, restrung to a Y-shape. 14.26 grams, 33 cm
From London, UK, gallery collection, 1990s. -
Middle Assyrian Brick-Shaped Tablet with Funerary Inscription for Adad-Shumu-lesir’s Tomb
1363-912 B.C.Estimate: £5,000 - 7,000 (‡+bp*)
Opening Bid: £2,778
A rectangular brick-shaped tablet, inscribed in cuneiform script across three vertical faces, with a single column to the fourth and a continuation of text across the top surface; the inscription a funerary curse relating to the tomb of Adad-šumu-lešir, warning against interference with the burial, reading in part: 'As for a stranger, or somebody who would approach that tomb, or would bring up a corpse out of it and bury his own within, or would touch the silver inside - Adad, Šamaš, or Nergal will fill his house and field with shortage, collapse, and murder. He will repay the property of that tomb sevenfold, dedicating it to Šuriha. For the offspring of Adad-šumu-lešir he shall be undone for taking out and bringing down objects in the tomb, and for burying another body within it. Month Kalmartu, third day, eponymy of Aššur-mušezib.' 333 grams, 14.3 cm
Acquired in 1996. Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection, since the late 1990s. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12872-241667.
Funerary inscriptions of this type are extremely rare survivals, serving both as legal texts and spiritual safeguards, invoking the major deities Adad, Šamaš, and Nergal to enforce the curse.
