Luristan Bronze Pin Head with Ibex

Broad and squat with impressed guilloche below the inner rim, repoussé frieze with fleeing ibex attacked by a gryphon and kneeling archer to the rear; central rosette; seven incised characters to inner face and four to outer face. 277 grams, 15.5 cm



The Saleh Collection, Germany, formed 1972. Private collection, UK. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12809-241324. 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.

The presence of decorated bronze bowls during the later Pre-Islamic period, mainly in the territories of the modern Emirates, is well documented. Many decorated bowls and bowl fragments were discovered at Mleiha, one or more possible fragments were found at ed-Dur and a single bowl comes from a Pre-Islamic period C tomb in Dibba. They are also similar to the so-called Phoenician - or more correctly Levantine - bowls produced in the 9th-early 7th century B.C. They combine local Levantine elements with imagery borrowed from Mesopotamia and Egypt, and local Arabian themes, such as camel and horse riding, often composed in radial zones.

Square-section long body with rounded edges, tapered and flattened to one end; stylised zoomorphic finial to the other end with one white eye inlay, pierced for suspension. 42.4 grams, 15.1 cm



From an important collection pre 1988. From a private UK 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.

With frieze in three scenes: crouching gryphon with one foreleg raised above a guilloche scene-divider with a crouching ibex below; three human figures standing, the outer two wearing an ankle-length skirt with waistband, one arm bent holding a frond and, between them, a standing figure in flounced robe flanked by a squatting monkey with tail raised and a freestanding cruciform symbol; supplied with a museum-quality impression. 5.86 grams, 19 mm



From the 'S' collection, acquired 1970-1990s. The collection was seen and studied by W.G.Lambert, late 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.