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LOT 1483
Luristan Bronze Macehead
13TH-7TH CENTURY B.C.
3 7/8 in. (416 grams, 98 mm).
Comprising a cylindrical shaft with flared mouth, rounded flanges around the swollen head, horizontal stepped bands; Sara Gorz type.
ProvenanceAcquired 1980-2015.
Ex Abelita family collection.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Cf. Musé Cernuschi, Bronzes du Luristan: Enigmes De L'Iran Ancien IIIe-Ier millénaire ac. j.-c., Paris musées, 2008, p.103, for type.
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AUCTIONS:
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LOT 1483
Luristan Bronze Macehead
Estimate £100 - 140€120 - 160 (for guidance only)$140 - 190 (for guidance only)
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Hellenistic Rhodian Lead Slingshot with Scorpion
3rd century B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £598
Lentoid-section and depicting a stylised scorpion to one side, a type sometimes known to have the Rhodian legend ΚΑΛΑ to verso. 29.6 grams, 29 mm
From a Manchester, UK, collection, 1990s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Together with the Balearic slingers, Rhodian slingers were considered to be the best of the Hellenistic world, and they were also used in the Roman army. The slingshots with an image of a scorpion on one side and with an inscription ΚΑΛΑ on the other are believed to originate from the Island of Rhodes. On these sling bullets ΚΑΛΑ should be translated as “nice things.” Of course, ironically, these “nice things” were designed to kill enemies and to sting like a scorpion, and the message of those with the image of a scorpion could be understood, as proposed by M. Manov and N. Torbov, as: “nice things sting like a scorpion.” -
Bactrian Bronze Axehead
3rd-2nd millennium B.C.Estimate: £400 - 600 (‡+bp*)
Opening Bid: £200
With curved flaring cutting edge, characteristic curving shape and narrow socket, blade end squaring off, shaft hole pierced on both sides. 227 grams, 10.6 cm
Acquired in the mid 1980s-1990s. Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection, since the late 1990s. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
These collared axes have the specific feature of being equipped with variously shaped rear extensions. The provenance of this typology is clearer than others: these axes came from Margiana and southern Bactria. Gonur Depe and Susa yielded a rather atypical and probably imported example. P. Amiet suggests that they were an adoption of Elamite material, from conceptual and institutional models. They would have developed from the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. -
Greek Bronze Cuirass Section of Thorax Stadios
4th-3rd century B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £494
Left front side of anatomical armour for horseman, embossed left flank muscles embossed, double border of armour under armpits still partially visible. 465 grams, 33.5 cm
UK private collection, acquired in 1996. This lot is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.
Armour for cavalrymen in classical Greece were specially designed with these characteristics. They were very broad on the hips to enable their wearers to sit on a horse. Important parallels are known from South Italy, one of them preserved in the Bari Museum.
