LOT 0098

Hellenistic Decorated Silver-Gilt Bowl

LATE 2ND-EARLY 1ST CENTURY B.C.

8 in. (11 1/4 x 11 in.) (246 grams, 20.2 wide (1.58 kg total, 28.5 x 28 cm including case)).

The bell-shaped bowl with everted flaring rim, raised from a single sheet with parcel-gilding; the inner rim with raised wreath ornament, a band of geometric motifs below; central band composed of an elaborate garland of leaves and flowers flanked by bands of volutes; the base with an eight-petalled flower with radiating large leaves; small repair.

From the collection of George Ortiz (1927-2013).
with Mansour Gallery, early 2000s.
Subsequently in a French 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 search certificate number no.11936-210132.

Cf. Pfrommer, M., Metalwork from the Hellenized East: Catalogue of the Collections of the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1993, fig.18 (for identical parallel in Hamburg, Museum fir Kunst und Gewerbe, inv. 1969.113) and pp.21ff and 140ff, for general discussion and parallels; Maierovskii III Burial-mound no. 4/2002, Burial no. 3B, Moscow, State Historical Museum, inv. no. 112873, list Б 2078/77, in Treister, M., 'Parthian and Early Sasanian 'Imports' in the Burials of the Nomads of Eastern Europe (2nd Century BCE-3rd Century CE)' in Choref, M.M., Materials in Archaeology and History of Ancient and Medieval Crimea, Moscow, 2018, pp.118-210, fig.4, 1-3, for a nearly identical bowl with very similar ornaments; Ebbinghaus, S., Feasting with gods, heroes, and kings, Cambridge, 2019, for discussion and sources of Hellenistic and Parthian vessels.

Similar segment-shaped silver bowls with partial gilding, decorated on the inside with friezes in the form of garlands or wickerwork on the bottom, have been found in many nomad mounds of the Caucasus and in the territories once dominated by the Arsacid Empire. They are attributed to Parthian workshops by Pfrommer and M. Treister.