LOT 0209

Old Babylonian Alabaster Vessel with Recumbent Lamassu

EARLY 2ND MILLENNIUM B.C.

7 3/4 in. (781 grams, 19.5 cm (1.12 kg total including stand)).

Deep elongated vessel, carved with an image of a reclining Lamassu on one side, the hind legs and the right front leg tucked beneath the body, the left front leg raised on the side of the head, the head modelled in the half-round with a characteristic long beard and hair framing the face; accompanied by a display stand.

From an important London-Geneva collection, formed before 1988, by family descent.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13371-258817.

Cf. a similar, slightly smaller vessel in the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, inv. B17087, published in Aruz, J. (ed.), Art of the First Cities. The Third Millennium B.C. from the Mediterranean to the Indus, New York - New Haven - London, 2003, catalogue no. 69 ('Pouring vessel'); see also for images of early Lamassu Frankfort, H., More Sculpture from the Diyala Region, OIP 60, Chicago, 1943, pls.49-51.

The Lamassu was a protective deity related to several Mesopotamian civilisations (Assyrian in particular, where it was represented as a winged bull-man). They were considered beneficial and protective spirits, guardians of the doors with an apotropaic function, destined to ward off dark or hostile forces.