LOT 1465

Western Asiatic Achaemenid Beaker with Winged Lions

6TH-4TH CENTURY BC

5" (163 grams, 13cm).

A silver waisted vessel with guilloche to the upper and lower edges, upper frieze of advancing winged lions with rosettes between, lower frieze of birds and rosettes; lobed motif to the underside, provincial workmanship.

From the collection of Persian businessman Habib Sabet; acquired 1970s-1980s; thence by descent 1990. Supplied with a positive X-Ray Fluorescence metal analysis certificate.

Accompanied by an Art Loss Register certificate.

The image of the winged lion appears on a number of objects from the ancient Near East, such as the glazed tiles from the Gates of Ishtar in Babylon, relief carvings at the palace of Darius I at Persepolis, to gold dress ornaments and feasting vessels.

Habib Sabet was an industrialist and art collector who was born in Tehran in 1903. He is noted for founding many businesses in his native country and was also involved in banking and television. In 1974 he moved to Paris where he lived for many years; with the fall of the Shah in Iran his sons took over the running of his businesses. Habib Sabet spoke six languages and was raised in the Bahai faith in which he became an important figure and spokesperson. He was a noted philanthropist as well as a prolific collector of art and antiques where he concentrated on Sassanian and Achaemenid objects that illustrated the courtly life of the times. He died in Los Angeles in 1990 at the age of 86.