An alabaster jar set on a broad circular blackstone base; the jar with tapering walls, steep shoulder and everted rim, the body decorated with three rows of white and dark red inlaid stones roundels with central black dots, and two rows of white and indigo inlaid circles; the neck decorated with similar alternate white and dark red inlaid roundels with central black dots and indigo and red inlaid circles; the flat blackstone base with eight alternate rows of black and white lines, with circular recesses set with inlaid circlets; the white inlays are a calcium phosphate material, which may be bone or ivory.

PROVENANCE:
Property of a Kensington lady; ex Mansour Gallery, Davies Street, London, 2013; previously acquired on the UK market; formerly in a private 1980s collection; accompanied by a hard backed ten page scientific report by CIRAM (1017-OA-274R-31) and by an archaeological expertise by Dr. Raffaele D’Amato and a geological scholarly report no.TL5367 by Dr Ronald Bonewitz; this lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by AIAD certificate number no.10578-173391.

LITERATURE:
See Tokyo National Museum, Syrian Antiquities, Tokyo, 1977, fig.91, for a cup decorated in the same style; cf. Christie's, Antiquities, Thursday 5 October 2000, catalogue, London, 2000, item 179, for similar pottery.