LOT 0243

Syro-Hittite Silver Standing Stag

12TH-8TH CENTURY B.C.

31/8 in. (69.2 grams total, 80 mm high including stand).

Modelled in the round standing with head raised, recurved horns or antlers, slender muzzle with mouth detailing, incised ring-and-dot motif to shoulders and hips; mounted on a custom-made stand. [No Reserve]

London art market, 1978.

This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.12263-220844.

Cf. Zahlhaas, G., Animals in Ancient Art, Out of Noah's Ark, from the Leo Mildenberg Collection, Mainz, 1997, figs.126,128, for similar.

Stylistically, the item shares features with the Hattian stag figurine found in the royal tombs in Alacahöyük (now in the Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara, Turkey) and dating from the period 2100-2000 B.C. The use of ring-and-dot embellishments to the flanks is suggestive of some cultural continuity. The animal depicted is probably an ibex rather than a European stag. However, a date of manufacture in the period after the fall of the Hittite Empire in the 12th century B.C. seems more probable.