Luristan Bronze Poppy-Headed Dress Pin

A rectangular lead sheet rolled into a tight scroll with the text to the inner face. 31 grams, 58 mm



Collected from 1970-1999. From the collection of the late Mr S.M., London, UK. 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 item was possibly meant to be what the Romans called a defixio or 'curse tablet', on which the magical malediction was recorded and then shut away (by being tightly rolled up) so that the victim could not find it or change it.

Columnar in form with two beads and a cord forming handles; 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 Soft Black Stone, 19x10.5mm. The engraved area is divided into two registers by a notched band. In the upper, narrower register there is a row of nine human heads. Below is a row of various items: a mace; a sitting animal; a recumbent bull with a bird above its back; a wedge; a standing human with one hand raised; a recumbent horned quadruped with head turned back with combined sun and lunar crescent above it. This seal is Syro-Cappadocian, from c. 2000 B.C. For comparable seals cf. Briggs Buchanan, catalogue of Ancient Near Eastern Seals in the Ashmolean Museum, I, no. 849 and idem, early Near Eastern Seals in the Yale Babylonian Collection, no.1180.'; supplied with a museum-quality impression. 4.95 grams, 38 mm long



UK private collection, acquired 1980-1983. Accompanied by a copy of a typed and signed scholarly note by the late W.G. Lambert, Professor of Assyriology at the University of Birmingham, 1970-1993, with reference no.1580. 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.

A hemispherical bowl with central raised boss. 217 grams, 15 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.