Judaean Lead Sealing with Menorah and Inscription

Comprising: sphinx with wing and hatched field, red pigment; reserved bird on a rectangular field with border. 17.5 grams total, 39-40 mm



Collected from 1969-1999. From the collection of the late Mr S.M., London, UK.

With a dynamic scene depicting a Shah on horseback shooting arrows from his bow; a leaping quadruped with an arrow through its neck racing in front of the galloping stocky horse; a fallen boar with an arrow on its back laying on the foreground, and another large boar charging towards the horse on the upper field; a hunting dog on the lower field and a pair of birds behind the horse; the king wearing a crown and mantle, a scabbard hanging from his waist; low foot to base; repaired. 505 grams, 21.3 cm wide



Private US collection, kept in Switzerland, since the 1960s. Accompanied by a copy of an Art Loss Register certificate no.S00122910. 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.12023-214175.

Various are the parallels for this scene, visible on many silver plates of Sassanian and Post-Sassanian periods. Good parallels can be found with plates in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Peroz or Kavad I hunting rams, Harper & Meyers,1981, p.XII, pl.17), in the Museum fur Islamische Künst, Berlin (King hunting, Harper & Meyers,1981, pl.20) and especially with the silver-gilt plate from Nizhne Shakharovka (king hunting boars, Harper & Meyers, 1981, pl.32).

Tubular in form with large hatched panel above and frieze of standing beasts below; supplied with a museum-quality impression. 5.57 grams, 16 mm



Ex S collection, London, UK, 1980-1990.