LOT 0251

Elamite Silver Beaker with Three Ibexes

CIRCA 1500-800 B.C.

4 1/2 in. (148 grams, 11.7 cm high).

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.

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.

See Negahban, E.O., A preliminary report on Marlik excavations, Gohar Rud Expedition, Rudbar, 1961-1962, Teheran,1964; Moorey, P.R.S., Bunker, C.M., Porada, E., Markoe, G., Ancient Bronzes Ceramics and seals, Los Angeles, 1981, fig.409; Mahboubian H., Elam, Art and civilization of Ancient Iran, 3000-2000 BC, Salisbury, 2004, nos.1-5, for similar; Muscarella, O.W., Archaeology, Artifacts and Antiquities of the Ancient Near East, Leiden, Boston, 2013; Oudbashi, O., Hessari, M. ‘Iron Age tin bronze metallurgy at Marlik, Northern Iran: an analytical investigation’ in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences Volume: 9 Issues: 2, 2017; the decoration of the vessel finds a good correspondence with a silver beaker of hammered repoussè and chasing from Fars (see Mahboubian, 2004, pp.34-35), the decoration of a jar from Western Iran (Moorey, Bunker, Porada, Markoe, 1981, pp.84-85), but especially with a North Western Iranian vase published by Muscarella (1988, pp.82ff.) and belonging to the Marlik culture.