LOT 0066

Parthian Carnelian Gemstone of a Goat-Headed Rhyton in Gold Ring

4TH CENTURY B.C.-220 A.D.

1 in. (8.51 grams, 24.02 mm overall, 21.18 mm internal diameter (approximate size British P, USA 7 1/2, Europe 16.23, Japan 15)).

Achaemenid or Parthian oval intaglio engraved with a style standing at the threshold between natural and stiff rigid linear style, depicting a goat-headed rhyton, the vessel terminating in the forepart of a wild goat with the front leg tucked under the body, the head rendered in profile with elegantly arched horns, pronounced muzzle, and carefully incised eye; the neck of the conical rhyton decorated with diagonal and cross-hatched incisions suggesting ribbing or chased metalwork; set in a modern gold ring with a small triangular area at the top left of the stone filled in with gold; supplied with a museum-quality impression.

Acquired on the European art market.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.13356-257945.

See for rhyta of similar form and iconography, compare the silver and gold animal-headed rhyta from the Panagyurishte and Derveni Treasures in Seipel, W., Antike Goldschmiedekunst, Vienna, 1980; see also a rhyton terminating in a goat protome from the 5th century BC, in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, acc. no. 1989.281.15.

The subject, a rhyton terminating in an animal protome, belongs to a well-established tradition in Eastern Greek and Achaemenid art of the late Archaic and Classical periods, in which zoomorphic libation vessels were used in ritual and ceremonial contexts. Goat-headed rhyta, though less commonly preserved in glyptic media, are attested in silver and ceramic examples, notably from Asia Minor and Thrace. The stylised horned animal, here likely a wild goat or ibex, is associated with vitality and mountain symbolism, while the rhyton itself signals elite drinking culture and votive use. The use of carnelian is typical of high-quality glyptic production in the 6th to 4th century BC, valued for its durability and ability to take a fine polish. The style and iconography suggest an Eastern Mediterranean origin, most probably Ionian or Anatolian.