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_900x900.jpg "Achaemenid Silver Bowl with Royal Egyptian Inscription for Darius the Great")
_200x200.jpg "Achaemenid Silver Bowl with Royal Egyptian Inscription for Darius the Great")
_900x900.jpg "Achaemenid Silver Bowl with Royal Egyptian Inscription for Darius the Great")
_200x200.jpg "Achaemenid Silver Bowl with Royal Egyptian Inscription for Darius the Great")
.jpg "Achaemenid Silver Bowl with Royal Egyptian Inscription for Darius the Great")
.jpg "Achaemenid Silver Bowl with Royal Egyptian Inscription for Darius the Great")
LOT 0278
Achaemenid Silver Bowl with Royal Egyptian Inscription for Darius the Great
6TH-5TH CENTURY B.C.
10 1/2 in. (1.23 kg total, 26.7 cm wide including stand).
Bowl fragment including section of the carinated rim, radiating repoussé teardrop bosses with interstitial lotus-flowers motifs and radiating rosette motif below; incised Egyptian hieroglyphic legend below the rim transliterated as 'ı͗nṯry(p sic )wš pr-ꜤꜢ pꜢ ꜤꜢ' (Darius, the Great Pharaoh); mounted on a custom-made stand.
ProvenancePreviously in the private collection of Mr S.A, acquired on the London art market in the 1960s.
Accompanied by a copy of a previous illustrated three page cataloguing/report.
Accompanied by a copy of an IADAA Interpol search certificate.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12709-235450.
This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Cf. Posener, G., La première domination Perse en Égypte, Bibliothèque d'étude 11, Cairo, 1936, pp.161-162, for examples of the variant hieroglyphic writings of Darius I’s name; Westenholz, J.G., Stolper, M.W., “A Stone Jar with Inscriptions of Darius I in Four Languages,” Arta 005, 2002, for a discussion of the composition of multilingual inscriptions based on a stone vessel from Darius I’s reign; Kuhrt, A., The Persian Empire: a Corpus of Sources from the Achaemenid Period, Oxon/New York, 2010, p.317 Fig.8.1, for a complete, similarly large silver phiale inscribed in Old Persian for Artaxerxes I.
FootnotesEgyptologist Paul Whelan writes: "The inscription reads: ı͗nṯry(p sic )wš pr-ꜤꜢ pꜢ ꜤꜢ (Darius, the Great Pharaoh). The ancient Egyptians encountered difficulties in rendering the name Darius in hieroglyphs, with at least seventeen known variants. This version differs slightly from those, as it also includes an erroneous ‘p’ hieroglyph. The presence of several cuneiform signs following the hieroglyphs indicates that the phiale likely once featured multilingual versions of the inscription - a practice more commonly found on stone vessels. The epithet ‘the Great Pharaoh’ on this fragment represents one of the earliest examples, appearing more frequently in inscriptions from the reign of Xerxes."
A hieroglyphic inscription on an Achaemenid item is very rare, although examples on stone vessels are known. Darius I 'the Great' ruled from 522 to 486 B.C. His predecessor, Cambyses II, conquered Egypt in 525 B.C. and the presence of this inscription is probably linked to the subsequent rule of the dynasty over Egypt and its influence on the Egyptian priestly caste.
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LOT 0278
Achaemenid Silver Bowl with Royal Egyptian Inscription for Darius the Great
Sold for (Inc. bp): £13,000
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Large Western Asiatic Bronze Figure of a Bull
Circa 10th century B.C.Estimate: £10,000 - 14,000 (‡+bp*)
Opening Bid: £5,000
A heavy example modelled in the round with slender elongated trunk, thick neck and prominent horns, vestigial ears below; Anatolian workmanship. 1.32 kg, 19.2 cm
with Christie's, New York, 8 June 2001, no.363. Private collection, Europe. Accompanied by copies of the relevant Christie's catalogue pages. Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12414-226675. This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Bulls with raised horns have been found in central Anatolian royal burials. Among the sacred animals found in the royal graves of Alacahöyük, the bull and the deer are always present. This simplified figure of a young and spritely standing bull recalls the Baltimore bull and other two examples in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Images of bulls were mounted on standards, used in battlefields or in religious processions, or like in the royal graves of Alacahöyük, they were used to decorate cult furniture or shrines. -
Syrian Grey Stone Cylinder Seal with Figure Holding Fish
Circa 2600-2300 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £104
Cylinder with cord and bead handles; accompanied by a copy of an old scholarly note, typed and signed by W.G. Lambert, late Professor of Assyriology, University of Birmingham, 1970-1993, which states: 'Description of Cylinder Seal of cream/grey stone, 25 x 11.5 mm. Human figure, holding up large fish 9?), faces huge bird, behind which a stag is standing. The whole scene and deep cutting is typically Syrian c. 2600-2300 B.C. Clearly some mythological events are being portrayed, but this is not a common type and so far we cannot explain it. Condition is fine.'; supplied with a museum-quality impression. 6.6 grams, 25 mm
UK private collection, acquired 1980-1983. Accompanied by a copy of a scholarly note, typed and signed by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert in October 1987. This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato. -
Old Babylonian Terracotta Plaque of a Mastiff Dog
2nd millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £780
Rectangular plaque with low-relief image of a sitting dog with thick braided collar, gaping mouth. 146 grams, 12.2 cm
From an important collection of a London, UK, gentleman, pre 1988. This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
