Western Asiatic Decorated Carnelian Bead

Hollow-formed shoe-shaped jug with rolled rim to the ankle, tab with hole for thong and stopper; welt-line to upper face and around sole. 585 grams, 23 cm



Private collection, acquired on the German art market in 1993; thence by descent. This lot has been checked against the Interpol Database of stolen works of art and is accompanied by a search certificate number no.13226-249313.

These upturned shoes are characteristic of the whole Hittite era. They are attested until the Late Hittite age. This kind of footwear appears later in the Aegean area, probably due to the influence of Anatolian fashion on Bronze Age Greek culture. It may have been the case that the Akkiyawa (Achaeans) living on the western coast of Anatolia adopted such items (as many others) from the Anatolian Indo-Europeans and exported them to the Greek lands, with the first examples attested in Greece only around the 14th century BC.

With openwork body and lug to reverse, cage-style torso. 20.6 grams, 42.8 mm



From the private collection of a European gentleman (1942-2024), formed since the 1970s.

Carved in the round figure of a lion crouching on its haunches, with neck arched and forepaws resting on the spine (upper edge) of an animal placed perpendicular to the lion's head biting into its flesh; the D-shaped face with teardrop-shaped sockets for the eyes, button nose, small triangular ears; the prey with legs folded beneath the body, head turned along the lion's mane and left shoulder, with small protrusive horn and ear, oval socket for the eye; integral base with rounded lateral edges, fracture at each end. 340 grams, 85 mm



From the collection of a gentleman, acquired on the London art market in the 1990s.