Achaemenid Turquoise Blue Glass Bead Necklace String

Pillow-shaped fragment with cuneiform text to both broad faces. 35.3 grams, 42 mm



Specialised collection of cuneiform texts, the property of a London gentleman and housed in London before 1992. Thence by descent to family members. Examined by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert FBA (1926-2011), historian, archaeologist, and specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern archaeology, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This small collection is exceptional for the variety of types, including some very rare and well preserved examples. 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.

Broad and squat with impressed guilloche below the inner rim, repoussé frieze with fleeing ibex attacked by a gryphon and kneeling archer to the rear; central rosette; seven incised characters to inner face and four to outer face. 277 grams, 15.5 cm



The Saleh Collection, Germany, formed 1972. Private collection, UK. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12809-241324. 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.

The presence of decorated bronze bowls during the later Pre-Islamic period, mainly in the territories of the modern Emirates, is well documented. Many decorated bowls and bowl fragments were discovered at Mleiha, one or more possible fragments were found at ed-Dur and a single bowl comes from a Pre-Islamic period C tomb in Dibba. They are also similar to the so-called Phoenician - or more correctly Levantine - bowls produced in the 9th-early 7th century B.C. They combine local Levantine elements with imagery borrowed from Mesopotamia and Egypt, and local Arabian themes, such as camel and horse riding, often composed in radial zones.

With bulb to each shoulder, ellipsoid bezel, incuse legend. 4.25 grams, 21.63 mm overall, 18.49 mm internal diameter (approximate size British P, USA 7 1/2, Europe 16.23, Japan 15)



From the collection of a gentleman, acquired on the London art market in the 1990s. 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.