Anatolian Incised Terracotta Rhyton

Hardback with quarter-calf binding and cloth-covered boards; title page with naskh script text in a triangular block; text pages typically 18 lines of loose black-ink script inside hand-drawn bilinear frames with red titles and diacritics, ru'qah script headings, text figures, diagrams, numerical and text tables, perpendicular text-blocks; usage wear. 468 grams, 20.3 x 25.6 cm



From an important family collection started in the late 1950s. Property of a West London, UK, gentleman. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12276-220409.

Astrolabes were used to make astronomical measurements, specifically to determine the altitudes of celestial bodies, but over time astrologers and travellers devised many different uses for the instrument. They were especially useful to navigators in order to determine position when out of sight of land. This text explains the book 'The Astrolabe' and several ways in which the device could be deployed.

The bow decorated with circumferential grooves, one arm ending with the partially preserved wire coil; the catchplate in the form of a hand engraved with an X; accompanied by a display frame with information ticket. 186 grams total, 10 x 10.3 cm including frame



Ex Robin Symes Gallery, London, UK, 1990s. From a Leicestershire, UK, collection.

Fibulae with triangular bows (type 3 of Curtis classification) were the most common in Assyria. At least 66 bronze examples have been found at Nimrud, 32 in the graves and tombs at Ashur, 14 at Kouyunjik (some of them represented only by fragments), three at Nebbi Yunus, six at Khorsabad, three at Sharif Khan, all fragmentary, and single examples at Tell Billa and Tell al Rimah.

Raised from a single sheet, conical in form with concave body and everted rim; the body, executed in repoussè technique and chased details, decorated by a frieze of three male ibexes, rows of ovules under the rim and beneath the animals; the beasts with muscular bodies and curving horns, each reaching for a flower hanging from above, and eight-petalled flower to the base; late Elamite or Marlik; repaired. 148 grams, 11.7 cm high



with Mahboubian Gallery, New York, acquired prior to 1966. Property of a London gentleman. 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 no.12167-220488.