Western Asiatic Bronze Animal Figure

Cylinder with cord and bead handles; accompanied by a copy of an old scholarly note, typed by W.G. Lambert, late Professor of Assyriology, University of Birmingham, 1970-1993, which states: 'Description of Cylinder Seal of brown Hematitite (sic), 29 x 15.5 mm. Standing composite figure with human legs and body, but a bird's wings and head, is placed between a large recumbent horned quadruped with long neck and a smaller horned quadruped with short neck; other items; scorpion, hand, fish, star. The whole of the design in enclosed within upper and lower rules. This is a good example of the Mitanni "Elaborate Style", from anywhere between north-western Iran and the eastern Mediterranean. As is normal for such Mitanni seals, the cutting was done entirely with three semi-mechanical tools: the drill, the tubular drill and the cutting wheel. The date will be c. 1500-1250 B.C. The ancient name of the composite figure is not so far known. Save for a gash on the standing figure, the condition is fine.'; supplied with a museum-quality impression. 14.4 grams, 23 mm



UK private collection, acquired 1980-1983. Accompanied by a copy of a scholarly note typed by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert in October 1987. 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.

Comprising five leaf-shaped blades with raised midribs, one with pierced tang rivet hole, another with two rivet holes on the round shoulders. 344 grams total, 18.5 - 21 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.

The shape of many blades with convex sides was undoubtedly the result of sharpening, but some may have been designed with this outline when a long narrow blade was needed for a special purpose. The daggers with large rivet holes in the round base probably originated by the Hyksos of the Egyptian Twelfth Dynasty.

A heavy pear-shaped amber-green coloured glass vase with u-shaped neck and everted rim, decorative marbling over the body. 101 grams, 98 mm high



Acquired early 1990s. Ex private American collection; thence by descent. Private collection since 1998. 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.