Western Asiatic Glass Vessel Collection

The majority displaying standing figures in repoussé to both faces of a lozenge-shaped body; five formed as naked male figures with hands clasped in front of the waist; a single bead formed as a full-bodied figure wearing a headdress, one hand held over the pubic region, which is pierced; sheet-gold over bituminous cores; from a ritual headdress; most complete. 78.32 grams total, 34-43 mm



Acquired 1970s onwards. Private collection of Michael O'Hara, Cambridgeshire, UK. Ex private collection of Benjamin Hyde-Smith, Hertfordshire, UK.

Although the Buddha himself never visited Gandhara, with the passage of time the area became a veritable holy land for his followers. Mahayanism – a liberal and progressive school of Buddhism – flourished in Gandhara and laid emphasis among other things, on the transformation of the Buddha into a great mythological, almost eternal, god, and on the deification of future Buddhas as holding providences. In the visual arts, Buddha was permitted for the first time to be represented in human form.

Comprising: sheet-gold drum-shaped and octagonal-section beads with spherical pendants, graduated interstitial oval carnelian beads; restrung with modern clasp. 44 grams, 46.5 cm long



Acquired 1970s-1996. Property of a North American collector. London collection, 2016.

Composed of a polished flat diamond-shaped carnelian bead, with pricked design in the form of a galley, drilled for suspension; sold together with six translucent green glass doughnut-shaped beads displaying decorative vertical dashes around the external faces. 4.51 grams total, 8-20 mm



From a family collection formed 1900-1950; by descent circa 1980.