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LOT 1370
Mesopotamian Pink Stone Stamp Seal
CIRCA 4TH MILLENNIUM B.C.
2 in. (13.8 grams, 52 mm).
Modelled as an elongated rhomb pierced lengthways; 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: 'Stamp seal of pink stone, 51 x 23 x 10 mm,, [sic] an elongated rhomb, pierced lengthways. Design: criss-cross. Mesopotamia or Syria, c. 3500 B.C. Condition very good.' [No Reserve]
ProvenancePreviously in an old British collection formed in the 1960s.
Ex 1990s London collections, having been studied and catalogued by professor Lambert in the early 1990s.
Formerly with a Mayfair art dealer S.A.
Property of a London gallery.
Accompanied by an original scholarly note, typed and signed by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert.
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AUCTIONS:
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Western Asiatic and Other Bronze Ring Group
2nd-8th century AD.Sold for (Inc. bp): £91
Including disc bezel with hatched field, hexagonal bezel with incised legend and other types. 16.11 grams total, 19-22 mm
From the collection of a gentleman, acquired on the London art market in the 1990s. -
Greek and Luristan Bronze Arrowhead Collection
2nd-1st millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £130
Mainly small leaf-shaped and triangular-headed tanged types. 136 grams total, 3.8-11.1 cm
Ex London, UK, collection, 1990s. -
South Arabian Alabaster Head of a Woman
3rd-1st century B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £585
Modelled with an angular nose with straight ridge, small mouth with raised lips, rounded cheeks and chin, shallow eyes with grooved outlines, shallow ears, short neck, the back and the top of the head left roughly tooled; mounted on a custom-made display stand. 3.3 kg total, 24.3 cm high including stand
UK collection, 1990s. Acquired on the UK art market, before 2000. Private collection, Mr M.V., a London-based businessman.
This finely carved calcite-alabaster head was probably unfinished, as can be seen from the absence of the holes for the inlay of the eyes and the unfinished ears. In the Arabian funerary sculptures of the period, the tops of the heads are usually cut off flat just above the hair line and left roughly tooled. The cut was due to the necessity of fitting them into niches of 'house shrines'. Large stelae with niches containing such heads were found in the Timna Cemetery.
