Palestinian Ware Net-Painted Vessel

A ceramic chalice composed of a bowl with convex wall, everted rim and splayed foot; painted with a frieze of geometric motifs to the exterior and rim interior. 1.3 kg, 25 cm wide

Fine condition, base repaired.

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

A ceramic figure of a seated female with applied facial features, applied collar, arms bent and hands on the hips, flared skirt with separately moulded legs protruding. 135 grams, 12.5 cm



Collection of a deceased London gentleman, 1979-1999, by descent. Accompanied by a copy of a thermoluminescence analysis report no.N122k32 from Oxford Authentication.

A pillow-shaped administrative clay tablet bearing cuneiform text to both principal faces, relating to a barley debt; Aramaic graffiti to one edge. 114 grams, 67 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.

The tablet records a promissory note of a typical kind to pay for barley. It concludes with the names of witnesses, town and date. The Aramaic script transcribes the cuneiform name of the debtor into Aramaic script, making it easier for scribes to identify who each tablet refers to. It dates to the Achaemenid period, to the reign of Artaxerxes I (465-424 B.C.). Such late administrative tablets are typically carelessly written, as is apparent on our example as some script has been rendered slanting sharply downwards.