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LOT 0239
Old Babylonian Terracotta Cuneiform Tablet, a Legal Document in Envelope
CIRCA 2000-1700 B.C.
3 1/8 in. (307 grams, 79 mm).
Pillow-shaped baked clay tablet with cuneiform legend enclosed in an unmarked clay sleeve; accompanied by an old handwritten slip: 'Tablet with envelope, a legal document, Old Babylonian, c.2000-1700 B.C.'.
ProvenancePrivate collection, 1980s.
Acquired on the UK art market.
Private collection, London, UK.
Accompanied by an old handwritten note by W.G. Lambert, late Professor of Assyriology, University of Birmingham, 1970-1993.
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LOT 0239
Old Babylonian Terracotta Cuneiform Tablet, a Legal Document in Envelope
Estimate £600 - 800€700 - 930 (for guidance only)$810 - 1,080 (for guidance only)
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Western Asiatic Terracotta Single-Handled Pouring Vessel
Circa 2nd-1st millennium B.C.Estimate: £40 - 60 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £5
Hemispherical body with inturned rim, broad scooped pouring lip, small loop handle to the rear. 380 grams, 22 cm
From a UK collection formed in the 1980s. Property of an Essex, UK, gentleman. -
Western Asiatic Stone Amulet and Stamp Seal Collection
1st millennium B.C.Estimate: £70 - 90 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £5
Including drum-shaped type with drilled clusters, plano-convex type with pierced lug handle and quadruped, and other types. 14.1 grams total, 12-26 mm
From the private collection of a European gentleman (1942-2024), formed since the 1970s. -
Sumerian Proto-Cuneiform Tablet with Symbols
Jemdet Nasr Period, Uruk III, 3200-3000 B.C.Estimate: £4,000 - 6,000 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £2,000
Pillow-shaped with incised grid to the broad faces, dense cuneiform pictographic text in the columns with impressed pellet numerals. 45.6 grams, 63 mm
Percy Barnevik, Sweden. Private collection, UK, acquired June 2000. with Sam Fogg, London. Acquired by the current owner from the above, 2015. Accompanied by a copy of Professor Lambert’s notes and two-page cataloguing report. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate no.13429-259930.
Various collections of cuneiform tablets form a corpus of texts mainly of administrative nature, from the Uruk III and Ur III periods. The proto-cuneiform, as a system of proto-writing, emerged in Mesopotamia ca.3500-3200 BC, during the Uruk period.
