LOT 0193

Elamite Silver Beaker with Three Ibexes

CIRCA 2500-1500 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.

Acquired in New York, USA, 1966.
Private collection.

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.
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.

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.

This splendid vessel, decorated with a design possibly of Elamite origin, probably originates from North-Western Iran, or from southern Caspian area. Hammered sheet vessels were produced in Western Iranian metal workshops since the 3rd millennium B.C. (Moorey, Bunker, Porada, Markoe, 1981, p.82).