Ancient Indian Bronze Horse and Rider Figure

Comprising polished beads in various sizes with etched geometric designs. 7.68 grams total, 3-15 mm



Ex UK gallery, early 2000s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Etched carnelian beads are characteristic of the Indus Valley culture and have been produced since the third millennium B.C. They are a typical product of the Harappa culture, but they are also attested in later millennia and produced elsewhere in Southeast Asia. The oldest specimens come from the Indus Valley and from Mesopotamia. A few specimens were found in the so-called royal cemetery of Ur, where they were identified in the excavation publication as coming from India.

Squat, drum-shaped pouring vessel with conical spout, broad neck, chamfered rim and rounded base; dense panels of moulded ornament displaying alternating rosettes and birds to the rim, large-headed flowers between band of rosettes to the shoulder, lower body featuring a frieze of squatting male figures displaying their genitalia, all wearing cloth headdresses, ornamental collars, arm-bangles and anklets; some holding knives; chipped. 407 grams, 15.5 cm high



Private collection, 1989. Acquired on the UK art market. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.

Carved corbel or column fragment with scrolled foliage to three faces and socket to upper face to accept a statue; three youthful figures - two females flanking a larger male - each wearing the hair dressed in a topknot, with radiating sunburst behind them and below a team of two horses galloping left with empty saddles and their reins flung back towards the central character, probably a charioteer. 13.3 kg, 37 cm wide



London, UK, collection, 1990s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.