Mesopotamian Clay Fertility Figure

Framed and glazed and displaying polychrome figural scenes bordered by flowering plants and panels of script: one depicting a tea(?) ceremony set in a landscape featuring blossoming trees and birds; a prince or other figure seated on a bolster, in a landscape featuring a brook and blossoming trees, surrounded by attendants. 932 grams total, 31 x 21.5 cm each



Acquired by the vendor's father on the UK art market, before 1990.

A matching pair of penannular armbands, each with a round-section body and dragon-head terminals, one terminal on each band separately made; the dragons with ring-and-dot eyes and linear decoration, slit mouths and flaring nostrils. 1.19 kg total, 13-13.1 cm



Ex London, UK gallery, 1971-early 2000s. Private collection, London.

Bronze armbands of this scale and quality are characteristic of Luristan, an important centre of metal production in western Iran during the early 1st millennium B.C. The region is renowned for its distinctive cast bronzes, including weapons, horse trappings, and items of personal adornment, often decorated with powerful animal imagery. The dragon, with its elongated body and open jaws, was a common motif in Luristan art, symbolising strength, protection, and the supernatural. Armbands with dragon-head terminals likely carried an apotropaic function, serving both as impressive ornaments and as protective charms for the wearer. Monumental examples such as this pair are rare survivals, attesting to the high status of their original owner and the extraordinary skill of Luristan bronze workers.

Showing a divine drinking scene; accompanied by a museum quality impression and 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 Green Jasper, 23 x 13 mm. Two seated figures face each other. On the right is a male, wearing a flat cap on his head, and a long robe to the feet with a deep fringe at the bottom. He is holding up a flat cup. The figure on the left is female, bare-headed, but wearing a similar long garment with fringe at the bottom, alos a fringe where the fabric overlaps from the waist down. Both figures hold up the same type of cup. Between them stands a servant, in a similar long robe and with bare head, holding a mace at the waist. In the sky there is a star and lunar crescent. A tall slender tree serves as a terminal. This is a Akkadian seal, c. 2300-2200 B.C., from Mesopotamia or a neighbouring region. In view of the flat cap on the male the figures are no doubt divine, and this is then a divine drinking scene. This seal is in excellent state of preservation.' 6.31 grams, 23 mm



From the private collection of a North American lady, formed 1970s-early 1990s, with collection reference no.P18. Accompanied by a copy of a scholarly note, typed and signed by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert in August 1992 and an old photograph.