Monumental Western Asiatic Pottery Jar

With basal ring, bulbous body, loop handle and long pouring lip with strainer and thumb-pad; hatched and scrolled painted decoration. 292 grams, 17.7 cm



UK collection, 1990s. Acquired on the UK art market, before 2000. Private collection, Mr M.V., a London-based businessman.

Comprising a thick discoid body with a tapering handle above, 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 White Marble, 28 x 25 mm. The base of the stamp is round, with a flat bottom and slightly outcurving sides. The handle rises from the base with decreasing diameter, and eight sides, to the knob, which is roughly oval and pierced from side to side, with a raised band over the top. This shape is a typical Hittite stamp seal shape. The design consists of a band of design around the edge surrounding hieroglyphs in the middle. The band consists of four sections of pattern: three kinds of guilloche and one section of dots, interspersed with two opposite animal heads, and two opposite unidentified items. The hieroglyphs are no doubt the owner's name. This seal comes from Anatolia, and dates to the 17/16th century B.C. It is in good state of preservation.' 26.7 grams, 35 mm



UK private collection, acquired 1990-1993. Accompanied by a copy of a scholarly note, typed and signed by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert in 1991.

Seals were the working signatures of the ancient Near East. Pressed or rolled into wet clay, they secured jars, bags, doors and tablets, and left a distinct impression that identified the owner, authorised a transaction, and showed whether a container had been opened. Stamp seals (pressed once to leave a single emblem) appear from the 7th–4th millennia BC and continue throughout later periods; cylinder seals (rolled to create a repeating frieze) developed in Mesopotamia in the late 4th millennium BC and are used into the 1st millennium BC. Beyond administration, seals were miniature artworks and amulets. Their images—gods and worshippers, royal hunts, banquets, heroes and mythic beasts—broadcast rank, piety and profession, and were believed to protect the owner. Materials range from soft stones to hard chalcedonies, haematite and lapis, worked with drills and abrasives to achieve crisp intaglio cutting. Many were worn on cords or rings and followed their owners through life, sometimes into the grave. Seals matter because they underpin the earliest systems of record-keeping and trade. Impressions on tablets and bullae are primary documents for ancient law, economy and religion; the seals themselves preserve that imagery in the round. For collectors, well-cut examples with sharp impressions, good polish and honest ancient wear are especially desirable, and pieces with early collection histories are keenly sought.

Hemispherical in profile with narrow rim, frieze of perching birds in relief, each with a pellet eye, stub beak, large comma-shaped hatched wing and leg held horizontally beneath the body; rim chipped. 273 grams, 11.2 cm



with Holy Lands House, Israel, 1960s. Private collection, 2005. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate no.12595-232195.

The chlorite stone vessels of early Bactria were kidney-shaped vessels with simple geometric decoration or, like our specimen, semi-circular. Small cylindrical vases were used as cosmetic containers, together with chlorite cosmetic flasks.