Samanid Terracotta Ewer

Columnar in form with flared dimple base, arms placed on the chest, applied collar and hair. 66 grams, 12.4 cm



Acquired on the German art market, 1989-1995. with The Museum Gallery, 19 Bury Place, London, WC1, UK, 1998-2003. Property of a London based academic, 2003-present. This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Modelled in the round female figure standing with stub arms, applied breasts and pectoral cross-straps with central disc; applied collar of discs and mask with segmented detailing to eyes and reverse; mounted on a custom-made stand. 153 grams, 13.8 cm



Acquired in 1993. Private collection, Switzerland, thence by descent. Private collection, since the late 1990s. Accompanied by a copy of an Art Loss register certificate, no.S00027857. This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Tapering blade with raised midrib developing to a short tang pierced at the finial. 218 grams, 32.5 cm



Ex London art market, 1980-1990s. This lot has been cleared against the Art Loss Register database, and is accompanied by an illustrated lot declaration signed by the Head of the Antiquities Department, Dr Raffaele D'Amato.

Around the 17th century BC, Hyksos craftsmen apparently invented daggers with an elongated, narrow blade of a subtriangular shape, sometimes with a mid-rib, but more often flat, and a handle cast together with the blade, flat, fairly wide, with a pronounced, sometimes sharply, more often smoothly, pommel and crossguard. Such daggers very quickly gained popularity in Mesopotamia and further to the east and northeast, as well as to the northwest, in the Aegean, and became almost the most widespread type of dagger in these regions up until the middle of the 1st millennium B.C.