Western Asiatic Bronze Finial with Animals

Depicting a bull standing with legs splayed and firmly planted, tail extending to the ground, billetted bands to the neck, chest, shoulders, rump and hips, rosette sun wheel to each shoulder and hip; mounted on the brow a tubular socket, extended stem with three median collars, and three more at the top; three radiating feline figures each supporting a post with gusseted ring above. 3.44 kg, 42.8 cm



Acquired before 1983. Ex London gallery, 1990s. Private collection, London. 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 a search certificate number no.12796-241374. 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 artefact belongs to a series of bronze works attesting the wide regional trade existing in the mid to late 3rd millennium B.C. in the Mesopotamian lands. They were realised with human or animal figures planted on a rectangular stand with a massive armature or candelabra issuing from the back.

Piriform with vertical socket expanding towards the narrower end. 452 grams, 87 mm



Ex London, UK, collection, 1990-2000s. 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.

Broad and squat with impressed guilloche below the inner rim, repoussé frieze with fleeing ibex attacked by a gryphon and kneeling archer to the rear; central rosette; seven incised characters to inner face and four to outer face. 277 grams, 15.5 cm



The Saleh Collection, Germany, formed 1972. Private collection, UK. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by search certificate number no.12809-241324. 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 presence of decorated bronze bowls during the later Pre-Islamic period, mainly in the territories of the modern Emirates, is well documented. Many decorated bowls and bowl fragments were discovered at Mleiha, one or more possible fragments were found at ed-Dur and a single bowl comes from a Pre-Islamic period C tomb in Dibba. They are also similar to the so-called Phoenician - or more correctly Levantine - bowls produced in the 9th-early 7th century B.C. They combine local Levantine elements with imagery borrowed from Mesopotamia and Egypt, and local Arabian themes, such as camel and horse riding, often composed in radial zones.