Nabataean Painted Dish

A red terracotta vessel in the form of a stylised sheep, composed of an ovoid body with integral tail, shallow neck to the vessel opening and animal's neck and head with horns curled around its ears, pricked eyes and muzzle formed as pouring spout. 248 grams, 14.7 cm wide

Fine condition.

Acquired 1970s-1990s. Ex Pars Gallery, Mayfair, London, UK. From a specialist collection of pottery.

Vessels of this type likely served a ceremonial function and were often ritually deposited in graves.

A bifacial pillow-shaped clay tablet bearing pictographs relating to cattle to both principal faces; repaired. 130 grams, 56 mm wide



Specialised collection of cuneiform texts, the property of a London gentleman and housed in London before 1992. Thence by descent to family members. Examined by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert FBA (1926-2011), historian, archaeologist, and specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern archaeology, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The collection is exceptional for the variety of types, including some very rare and well preserved examples.

Early writing was used primarily as a means of recording economic data. At the end of the 4th millennium B.C., written language developed in Mesopotamia as pictographs, later evolving into abstract forms called cuneiform. Pictographs were drawn in the clay with a pointed implement. Circular impressions alongside the pictographs represented numerical symbols. Cuneiform (meaning wedge-shaped) script was written by pressing a reed pen or stylus with a wedge-shaped tip into a clay tablet.

A group of black and white jasper cylindrical beads with irregular quartz discs and a large oval-shaped white jasper bead with double collar at either end, restrung on a string. 36.86 grams, 24 cm

Fine condition.

Acquired before 1990. Central London gallery. Private collection of a North West London lady.