Luristan Bronze Idol Group

Squat lotiform bowl with wide everted rim, central domed mesomphalos with rosette detailing, traces of gilding. 283 grams, 20.7 cm wide



English private collection, formed 1940s. Private collection, UK. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12795-241325. 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.

This bowl is possibly part of a set of nearly identical vessels, probably used at the table of royal Satrapes. Persian governors used banquets to display their wealth and power by imitating the royal banquets. It was a greater honour for them to receive a drinking vessel such as this as a gift from the King of the Kings – establishing one’s status as a royal dinner guest. No doubt it took practice to drink adeptly from a vessel like this: however the omphalos in the base would have made it easier to hold with one hand, with the middle finger hooked inside the indentation and the thumb stretched out to grip the vessel at or near the rim.

Pillow-shaped with impressed text to both faces; accompanied by an old scholarly note, typed and signed by W.G. Lambert, late Professor of Assyriology, University of Birmingham, 1970-1993, which states: 'Clay tablet 58x64 mm. with 26 Compartments and One Column of Sumerian Cuneiform. This is oblong with rounded sides and edges. each side is divided into 3 columns, and all but the last two are filled with script. This is some kind of legal document from a Sumerian city not so far known for such texts. The first five columns list items, each with a number and followed by a compartment of a different kind. The last column, on the reverse, is different from the others in giving the name and title of an official who in some way presided over the transaction here recorded. Since it is without exact parallel, it is difficult to translate even when the text is clear (there is some surface damage and one corner is broken off). The items given start with "one donkey", and include a quantity of barley (3 gur of barley), "one shekel of refined silver," and "two iku" (acres of agricultural land) is the last item. after which the document concludes: "Mr Enshaga was their seller." Other items are followed by, apparently, personal names, but only once at the end does "was their seller" appears. More study and more similar documents are needed to clear up the problems. The last column begins clearly enough: Ege-anda, Nugig but the final line is not clear. Nugig is a title of a priestess, but only here, it seems, is such a lady a high official giving her blessing to the sale just recorded. This is a most interesting Sumerian document dating to the later early Dynastic periods, c. 2500 B.C.' 95 grams, 64 mm



Ex private collection of Mr S H; thence by descent,1980-1990. Accompanied by an original typed and signed scholarly note by the late W.G. Lambert, Professor of Assyriology at the University of Birmingham, 1970-1993. 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.

Composed of graduated irregular and oblate beads, restrung to a Y-shaped with larger feature beads. 20.37 grams, 36 cm



Acquired 1980-2015. Ex Abelita family collection. 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.