AN ACHAEMENID SILVER KYATHOS

CIRCA 5TH CENTURY B.C.

Details

AN ACHAEMENID SILVER KYATHOS
CIRCA 5TH CENTURY B.C.
With shallow, circular bowl and heptagonal handle with lotus flower capital, the ring terminal above in the form of two conjoined rampant lions, their heads turned back and mouths open, with finely chased and punched details for their fur, faces and musculature
9¼ in. (23.5 cm.) high

Provenance

Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, London, 14 July 1975, lot 93.

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Lot Essay

For an almost identical example in the Metropolitan Museum (1980.11.14) cf. D. von Bothmer, A Greek and Roman Treasury, MET Bulletin, Summer, 1984, no. 62, catalogued as Greek, 6th Century B.C. A further two examples are in the Miho Museum, Japan, cf, Exhibition catalogue, Treasures of Ancient Bactria, Miho Museum, Japan, 2002, nos. 35 and 120. The British Museum has two similar ladles, one purchased in Aleppo by C. L. Woolley in 1923, cf. J. Curtis and N. Tallis (eds.), Forgotten Empire, The World of Ancient Persia, British Museum, London, 2005, p. 127, nos 134 and 135.

For the subject in general cf. P. R. S. Moorey, "Metal wine-sets in the Ancient Near East", Iranica Antiqua, 15, 1980, pp. 182-197.

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