Parthian Bronze Satyr Oil Lamp Section

Comprising a squat body with a median band of vertical ribbing, a short neck with a broad flared rim, and a thickened outer rim, a flared foot; fluted strap handle and a U-section spout flared at the outer end. 211 grams, 14 cm



UK private collection before 2000. Acquired on the UK art market. Private collection, London, UK. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13266-253452.

This jug can plausibly be placed in the Lydian world of western Anatolia during the Archaic period, when Lydia stood at the crossroads of the Greek and Near Eastern worlds. Far from being culturally isolated, Lydia was deeply involved in the exchange of artistic forms, luxury materials, and metalworking traditions that moved across the eastern Mediterranean in the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. The attribution, therefore, suggests more than geography alone: it points to a wealthy and outward-looking culture in which prestige objects in precious metal carried both social and economic weight. Silver was especially important in this period. Before coinage became widespread, it functioned as a recognised store of value and circulated in weighed forms across the Mediterranean and Near East. In Lydia, its importance is sharpened by the region’s close association with the early history of coinage: ancient sources and modern scholarship alike connect the Lydians with the development of some of the earliest coined money, first in electrum and soon after in distinct gold and silver issues. A vessel such as this would therefore have been more than a practical object. Its material alone marked it as a possession of consequence, while its workmanship placed it firmly within the culture of elite display.

Comprising a slender round-section hoop and an oval bezel. 2.53 grams, 25.76 mm overall, 19.02x21.72 mm internal diameter (approximate size British T 1/2, USA 9 3/4, Europe 21.89, Japan 21)



From the private collection of a European gentleman (1942-2024), formed since the 1970s.

Comprising: a broad shallow bowl with two loop handles curving up towards the rim, short stem and broad foot with chamfered outer edge; the bowl with reserved central disc to inner face, palmette motifs at the junctions of the handles, frieze depicting two standing nude males flanking a crouching sphinx in profile; restored and with old dealer's labels beneath base. 414 grams, 27.3 cm wide



Ex Prof. F.S., Villingen-Schwenningen, Germany, 1991. with Gallery Drees Archeo S.P.R.L., Brussels. Acquired from the above, 16 December 2017. Accompanied by a copy of an Art Loss Register certificate, no.S00041086. Accompanied by a Gallery Drees Archeo certificate of authenticity. Accompanied by a thermoluminescence report no.0102 0910 from Laboratory Ralf Kotalla, 6 September 2010. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12945-246388.

The present piece is a wide-bowled drinking cup known as a kylix - one of the most popular forms of pottery from the Achaean times (1600-1100 B.C.) through to the classical period (c.510-323 B.C.). It dates to an important moment in the development of Greek ceramics, just as the black-figure technique was being perfected by Athenian painters. Painted in black slip with details incised on top, kylikes usually had a frieze around the outside of the bowl as well as another scene on the tondo of the inside. The scene here represented can be linked with the well-known episode of Oedipus and the Sphinx.