Loading, please wait...
LOT 0237
Large Sogdian Silver-Gilt Wild Boar Rhyton
5TH-6TH CENTURY A.D.
8 1/2 in. (1.3 kg, 21.5 cm long).
A Sogdian or Sasanian head of a wild boar with detailed facial features including large snout, curled tusks, alert eyes with heavy eyelids, erect ears, the animal's mane framing the head and back; a series of small circles decorating the cheeks; an oval vessel mouth emerging from the mane and the spout formed as a pierced stud at the centre of the boar's chest.
Provenancewith a New York gallery, 1970s.
Private collection, London.
Accompanied by three black-and-white photographs taken prior to cleaning, believed to date from the 1970s.
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.12979-246395.
See Harper, P. O. and Meyers, P., Silver Vessels of the Sassanian Period, Volume I, New York, 1981, for discussion and examples of wild boar on other vessels; Carter, M.L., Goldstein, S., Harper, P.O., Kawami, T.S., Meyers P., Splendors of the Ancient East, Antiquities from the al-Sabah collection, London, 2013; Ebbinghaus, S., Feasting with gods, heroes, and kings, Cambridge, 2019; the style of the animal's head, the mouth, the ears and the body suggest that the object was manufactured in an Eastern Sasanian workshop. The image of the boar was diffused in the Persian iconography and royal imagery. A roughly horn-shaped rhyton found at Kish in Mesopotamia features a boar head (Ebbinghaus, 2019, p.328) while various hunting scenes represent the Sasanian Shahanshah (King of the Kings) and local rulers hunting the wild boar (Harper, Meyers, 1981, pls.X,XIV,15,20; Carter, Goldstein, Harper, Kawami, Meyers, 2013, pp.172-173). The most famous is the boar hunting scene on the Taq-e-Bostan reliefs.
FootnotesThe production of silver vessels and dinner objects for the court was highly centralised within the Sasanian Empire. In the 5th and 6th century AD, the production of silver vessels expanded, creating new shapes, such as pitchers, elliptical bowls and high-footed bowls. If the iconography included both Dionysian and Christian imagery, the subjects linked with royal power were the favourites, and among them, the boar. The boar was, in fact, the animal associated with the Zoroastrian Izad Vahram, the epitome of victory. It was not a coincidence that one of the usurpers of the Persian throne, the general Farrukhān, took the title of Shahrbaraz (reigning in 630 AD), whose name means ‘The Boar of the Empire’, attesting to his dexterity in military command and warlike personality. Shahrwarāz derived in fact from the middle-Persian word shahr (country) and warāz (boar).
CONDITIONTimeLine Auctions follows a vetting process to ensure the authenticity and legality of all items, reinforcing our commitment to integrity and responsible trading. Each antiquity, antique, and coin lot undergoes thorough examination by a vetting committee of at least ten external specialists, professional trade association members, scientists, and archaeologists: Our Vetting Process
AUCTIONS:
TimeLine is a leading auction house specialising in antiquities, ancient art, collectables, natural history, coins, medals, and books. Our auctions offer museums, collectors, historians, and enthusiasts the opportunity to acquire unique and historically significant pieces.
-
Bactrian Turquoise Bead Necklace
1st millennium B.C.Estimate: £150 - 200 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £75
Restrung designer group of turquoise-coloured seed beads with fan-shaped, lentoid and other beads. 4.57 grams, 56.5 cm
Ex Jack Ogden and Faustus Gallery, Mayfair, London, UK, 1980s-1990s, and latterly a London gentleman's collection. -
Canaanite Bronze Warrior God with Raised Arm
Early 2nd millennium B.C.Estimate: £1,200 - 1,700 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £625
Standing on a columnar base and wearing a waist-belt and crossed baldrics. 97 grams, 12.1 cm
Acquired in Paris and London, 1970s. From a collection of Canaanite gods in bronze, from the collection of a London, UK, gentleman. 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. -
Anatolian Bronze Cylinder Seal Surmounted by Horned Animal
Late 3rd millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £1,105
Cylindrical body topped with a standing quadruped, likely a mouflon, accompanied by a copy of an old scholarly note, typed and signed by W.G. Lambert, late Professor of Assyriology, University of Birmingham, 1970-1993, which states: 'Cylinder Seal of Bronze, surmounted by a Horned Animal Maximum height 42mm., Diameter of seal: 15mm. The animal has big, back-curving horns, and was probably meant as a mouflon sheep. It is decorative, makes an imposing piece of a simple seal shape. The design of the seal is a wavey line creating triangular spaces, which are filed with triangles of a smaller size or arrow-heads. In one case the latter and a v-shaped extra wavey line are used. The date of these ornamented seals has been disputed. Some scholars have put them in the third millennium B.C., some in the first millennium. The seal design is well known for the latter half of the third millennium and the beginning of the second millennium B.C., and the animal gives the impression of being related to such creatures in bronze from third millennium Anatolia. Thus this is a late-third-millennium seal, and is to be placed somewhere in the area from Anatolia to Kurdistan. Its condition is fine, and the metal sculpture is well done.' 25.7 grams, 41 mm
UK private collection, acquired 1990-1993. Accompanied by a copy of a scholarly note, typed and signed by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert in 1990.
Seals were the working signatures of the ancient Near East. Pressed or rolled into wet clay, they secured jars, bags, doors and tablets, and left a distinct impression that identified the owner, authorised a transaction, and showed whether a container had been opened. Stamp seals (pressed once to leave a single emblem) appear from the 7th–4th millennia BC and continue throughout later periods; cylinder seals (rolled to create a repeating frieze) develop in Mesopotamia in the late 4th millennium BC and are used into the 1st millennium BC. Beyond administration, seals were miniature artworks and amulets. Their images—gods and worshippers, royal hunts, banquets, heroes and mythic beasts—broadcast rank, piety and profession, and were believed to protect the owner. Materials range from soft stones to hard chalcedonies, haematite and lapis, worked with drills and abrasives to achieve crisp intaglio cutting. Many were worn on cords or rings and followed their owners through life, sometimes into the grave. Seals matter because they underpin the earliest systems of record-keeping and trade. Impressions on tablets and bullae are primary documents for ancient law, economy and religion; the seals themselves preserve that imagery in the round.
