LOT 0276

Sassanian Silver Plate with a Shah Hunting

6TH-7TH CENTURY A.D.

8 3/8 in. (505 grams, 21.3 cm wide).

With a dynamic scene depicting a Shah on horseback shooting arrows from his bow; a leaping quadruped with an arrow through its neck racing in front of the galloping stocky horse; a fallen boar with an arrow on its back laying on the foreground, and another large boar charging towards the horse on the upper field; a hunting dog on the lower field and a pair of birds behind the horse; the king wearing a crown and mantle, a scabbard hanging from his waist; low foot to base; repaired.

Private US collection, kept in Switzerland, since the 1960s.

Accompanied by a copy of an Art Loss Register certificate no.S00122910.
Accompanied by an academic report by Dr Raffaele D’Amato.
This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12023-214175.

Cf. Erdmann, K., ‘Die Entwicklung der sāsānidischen Krone’ in Ars Islamica volume 15-16, pp.87-123; Godard, A., The art of Iran, Paris, 1962; Ghirsman, R., Persian Art. The Parthian and Sassanian Dynasties, New York, 1962; Harper, O., Meyers P., Silver Vessels of the Sasanian period, volume I: Royal Imaginery, New York, 1981; Nicolle, D., Sassanian Armies, The Iranian Empire early 3rd to mid-7th centuries AD, Stockport, 1996.

Various are the parallels for this scene, visible on many silver plates of Sassanian and Post-Sassanian periods. Good parallels can be found with plates in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Peroz or Kavad I hunting rams, Harper & Meyers,1981, p.XII, pl.17), in the Museum fur Islamische Künst, Berlin (King hunting, Harper & Meyers,1981, pl.20) and especially with the silver-gilt plate from Nizhne Shakharovka (king hunting boars, Harper & Meyers, 1981, pl.32).