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LOT 0236
Sogdian Silver Cup with Incised Design
7TH-8TH CENTURY A.D.
3 3/8 in. (67.7 grams, 86 mm).
Comprising a tapering sidewall with carination and convex underside, trumpet-shaped foot with beaded rim; D-shaped thumb-pad to the rim with narrow chamfered handle and spur beneath; frieze of fronds reserved against a pounced field.
ProvenanceOld Belgian private collection, 1970s.
Acquired on the Brussels art market, 2008.
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.12908-242700.
Cf. similar cup in Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, under accession no.F2012.1 (fluted cup with ring handle decorated with elephant heads); see the exhibition The Sogdians: Influencers on the Silk Roads at Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institute; Marshak, B., ‘A Sogdian Silver Bowl in the Freer Gallery of Art’ in Ars Orientalis, 29, 1999, pp.103-110; see cup with similar handle in the Hermitage State Museum, Saint Petersburg inventory no.S-251; cf. a similar goblet in the treasure of Mala Perescepina, in Daim, F., Hunnen + Awaren, Reitervölker aus dem Osten, Burgenländische Landesausstellung 1996, Schloß Halbturn, 26 April - 31 Oktober 1996, Eisenstadt, 1996, p.214ff., no.5.18.
FootnotesFooted silver cups with ring handles were well known in Central Asia and were common in Sogdian silverwork of the 7th – 8th century A.D. The low beaded foot and the ring handle with lobed thumb rest are well documented in Sogdian silver attributed to the same period. The plant and floral decoration finds parallel with a silver bowl from Xijao (Marshak, 1999, fig.6), which shows the same low beaded foot of our cup. This decoration is also visible on a vessel from the Malaya Perescepina treasure, sent by the Emperor Heraclius to the Bulgarian Khan Kuvrat. Heraclius took it together with other precious objects as war booty after defeating the Sasanians in 627-628 A.D.
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LOT 0236
Sogdian Silver Cup with Incised Design
Estimate £6,000 - 8,000€6,960 - 9,280 (for guidance only)$8,100 - 10,800 (for guidance only)
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Achaemenid Blue Glass Bead Necklace String
6th-4th century B.C. and laterSold for (Inc. bp): £104
Restrung designer necklace string of fusiform, oblate and other types with annular pendant centrepiece. 7 grams, 38 cm
London, UK, collection, 2000s. -
Central Asian Bronze Stamp Seal with Stylised Four-Winged God
Circa 2300-2000 B.C.Estimate: £200 - 300 (+bp*)
Opening Bid: £100
Formed as three vertical bars joined near the base; accompanied by an old scholarly note, typed and signed by W.G. Lambert, late Professor of Assyriology, University of Birmingham, 1970-1993, which states: 'Stamp Seal of Bronze 54 x 48 x 26mm This bears the shape of the design, with flat face and flat back, on which is mounted a handle of angular shape with rounded top. The piece has roughly three parallel vertical segments, which join in the middle, the whole being surrounded by a rim. Each segment has a row of dots in it: four in the two outer segments, six in the middle one, which is longer. This comes from western central Asia and dates to c. 2300-2000 B.C. It is extremely rare for its design, which may be understood as a stylized depiction of a standing four-winged god, but this is not completely certain.The piece is generally in good condition, but is a little bent.' 25 grams, 53 mm
Ex S collection, deceased, London, UK, 1990s. Accompanied by an original scholarly note, typed and signed by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert. -
Western Asiatic Painted Terracotta Jar
1st millennium B.C.Sold for (Inc. bp): £117
Globular in profile with trumpet-shaped neck and mouth, circumferential painted bands and roundels. 1.41 kg, 23 cm
From the collection of a London, UK, gentleman, 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.
