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LOT 1546
Greek Lead Slingshot with Inscription
3RD-1ST CENTURY B.C.
1 1/8 in. (39.1 grams, 29 mm).
Lenticular type with casting seam to the rim, raised legend 'ΛΥΣΙΑ' (commander's name, Lisia) on one side. [No Reserve]
ProvenanceEx German art market, 2000s.
Acquired from an EU collector living in London.
From the collection of a Surrey, UK, gentleman.
Cf. for a similar bullet (different inscription) Tsaravopoulos, A., ‘Evidence of war in a Pirates ’City of the Hellenistic Period (Island Antikythera/Aigilia Greece)’ in Sirbu, V., Schuster, C., Hortopan, D., Warriors and their weapons in Bronze and Iron Ages, Proceedings of the 21st International Colloquium of Funerary Archaeology 25th-28th May, 2023, Târgu Jiu, Gorj County (Romania), Braila, 2023, pp.301-320, fig.18; for bullets with the same inscription see Özenir, S.A., 'Some inscribed Lead Sling Bullets from Miletos' in Epigraphica Anatolica 50, 2017, pp.167-178, figs.51-53.
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 1546
Greek Lead Slingshot with Inscription
Estimate £60 - 80€70 - 93 (for guidance only)$81 - 108 (for guidance only)
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Western Asiatic Bronze Spear Blade
2nd-1st millennium B.C.Estimate: £180 - 240 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £90
Comprising a triangular blade with a rounded tip, a flaring neck with incised barleytwist detailing, and a square-section tang with bent tip. 355 grams, 32.2 cm
Ex Abelita family collection, 1980s-2000s. -
Large Luristan Leaf-Shaped Bronze Spearhead
Circa 1000-700 B.C.Estimate: £600 - 800 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £300
Comprising a leaf-shaped blade with a midrib and a long tapering socket; accompanied by a display stand. 771 grams total, 44 cm including stand
with Art Ancient, London, UK. Private collection, London.
The spear, belonging to type 3 of the Khorasani classification, was used by chariot fighters to strike each other or the enemy infantry from above. Similar specimens with longer sockets were excavated by Negahban in the Amlash area. According to Moorey, sockets as long, if not longer than the blade, are a characteristic of Iranian spearheads in the late 2nd and early 1st millennium B.C. A similar spearhead from the Tappeh Sialk has been dated to the 9th-7th century B.C. -
Sasanian Silver-Plated Lion Shield Boss
6th-7th century A.D. or earlierEstimate: £800 - 1,000 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £400
With stylised repoussé head and face detailing showing two faces, one to the side and the other to the top, the mane represented by a scalloped border; sheet-silver cladding to the head over bronze; pierced for attachment. 80.9 grams, 78 mm
Ex London, UK, gallery, 1971-early 2000s. London, UK, collection.