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LOT 1030
Bactrian Stone Bowl with Birds
3RD-2ND MILLENNIUM B.C.
5 1/8 in. (490 grams, 13 cm).
Drum-shaped with stepped flared rim, sidewall with frieze of stylised birds, each with wings spread, legs extended and head turned to the right; rows of shallow sockets to accept a coloured fill (now absent).
ProvenanceAcquired from a gallery in France, held in the UK since 1982, thence by descent.
Private collection, London.
Cf. Aruz, J. ed., Art Of The First Cities: The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2003, p.326, for similar.
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AUCTIONS:
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Luristan Bronze Mace Head
Early 2nd millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £325
Comprising a long cylindrical shaft with narrow flanged base, the upper section with three vertical relief panels decorated by round spikes alternated with wavy pattern, divided and bordered by two parallel ridges, similar band with three ridged horizontal grooves at the top and around the base. 357 grams, 19.3 cm
Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection.
This gorz mace head belongs to the category of truncheon-shaped mace-heads, a type developed on the Iranian plateau during the Bronze Age, used by Elamite and Luristan warriors since the 3rd millennium B.C. This category of objects was also interpreted as a part of a shaft, but most scholars agree on the interpretation of use as a mace. -
Mixed Ancient Necklace Bead Group
1st millennium B.C. and laterSold for (Inc. bp): £598
Comprising a quantity of lapis lazuli, glass and stone beads, including some larger collared tubular beads and a floral bead. 66 grams total, 2-46 mm
From a bead collection formed in the 1990s. -
Mesopotamian Terracotta Cuneiform School Exercise Tablet
Circa 1950-1700 B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £715
Discoid in plan and lentoid in section, bearing cuneiform scribal work in large characters on one side; repaired. 269 grams, 10 cm
From a specialised collection of cuneiform texts, the property of a London gentleman and housed in London before 1992. Thence by descent to family members and dispersed in 1988 in London and Geneva.
Such scribal tablets are always of this round shape. Type IV tablets, also known as 'lentils', are circular tablets containing one or a few lines of a composition written out once by the teacher and then a second time by the student, either underneath (typical of Nippur tablets), or on the reverse. This would appear to be an example of the former.
