ANCIENT ELAMITE TERRACOTTA FIGURE OF ASTARTE
1500 – 1000 BC

An Elamite terracotta figure of the goddess Astarte, depicted nude with her hands cupped beneath her breasts and with elaborate coiffure, wearing bracelets, earrings and a necklace with pendant hanging between her breasts

Ishtar (Akkadian), Astarte (Phoenician), or Inanna (Sumerian) was the most important female deity in Mesopotamia through the second millennium BC...

Steatite bowl, with an elaborate decoration carved in relief representing bearded and winged characters, in formal attire, standing and holding a disc, maybe a cymbal, in each hand, alternating with two circular symbols and surmounted by a geometric design around the rim. Indus Valley Civilisation (2600-1900 BC). Height: 7 cm. Diameter: 12.2 cm...

Relief fragment representing Buddha standing beside a column, his right hand holding his robe, his left hand in blessing posture, with a worshipper kneeling in front of him. Grey schist. Graeco-Buddhist art, Gandhara period, 1st to 3rd century. Height: 17 cm. Mounted on a plexi stand. Good condition. Provenance: Christie's Amsterdam auction sale 1993.

Mosaic glass pendant in the shape of a bearded head, surmounted by a large loop for attachment to a necklace. Phenicia, or Carthage, archaic period, 350 to 200 B.C. Height: 6.1 cm. Barely visible old accident, superbly restored, otherwise very good condition. NOTE: similar pendants are shown in the Antique Glass Collection of the Louvre Museum in Paris. Publications: "Les verres antiques du Musee du Louvre", Louvre Editions, Paris 2011.

Heavy bracelet decorated with a tiger head at each tip. Bronze, with partly encrusted green patina. Bactria, ca. 6th century B.C. maybe earlier. Inside diameter: around 9.5 cm. Very good condition.

Pendant of square shape, with a relief design representing two crowned characters kneeling in front of an altar surmounted by a circle containing an entity. Tiny loop at its top. Bronze, with reddish-green patina. Mesopotamia, ca. 2000 B.C. Height: 5.7 cm. Abrasion due to great age, otherwise good condition.

Agate cylinder seal with an intricate incised design representing a king or deity facing right, surmounted by a bird, and facing a smaller character holding a weapon and standing on a pedestal surmounting a tiny character at its feet. Mesopotamia, ca. 2000 B.C. Height: 4.4 cm. Abrasion, tiny chips, otherwise very good condition.

A rare Ancient Near East Bronze short sword or large dagger dating to 1st-2nd mill BC.

Commonly termed Luristani by dealers and collectors.

Fine style weapon with square shoulders and a flat central midrib. As a rare feature, on this short sword the lower part of the hilt is intact, which is seldom seen on this type of bronze age weapon.

Size is 42,7 cm - 16,8 inches.

Condition: A very nice ancient bronze...

A very rare and interesting stamp seal of quality bone or tusk, Greek period of the Levante, ca. 4th. century BC.

A beautifully carved and polished smaller stamp seal of semi-globular shape and wthe engraving of a stagg on it's face. The medium fully polished and now attractively patinated and the relief is deep.

Size: 12 x 10 mm.

Condition: Complete and intact, very rare for an ancient bone artifact. With the typical natural hairline cracks

Ex...

A beautiful seal carved in a dark serpentine. Finely polished oval base engraved with a Ram or stagg and a three in front.

Size: 12 mm. X 11,5 mm.

Ex. German Collection (Berlin), collected from the 1980s and onwards. Comes with collectors own notes and photos mounted on filt with a hard wax impression.

A high quality trapezoid stamp seal of the Neo-Babylonian type, 8th.-6th. cent. AD.

unusual and very beatiful stone used to carve this accomplished seal in antiquity. The stone is a banded agate with red inclusions, carved and polished in a an octagonal and pyramidal shape.

The seal engraved with a springing stagg or deer.

Size: 20 mm. tall and 18 mm. wide at the base.

Condition: Choice and intact, minor ancient wear.

Ex...

A large and finely patinated silver omphalos libation bowl, Medes / early Achaemenid, 9th.-8th. century BC.

A stunning silver bowl of an early type with relief decoration in form of humps and central omphalos.

Size: 16,5 cm. in diameter.

Condition: Choice and intact with small closed scratch and two minor chips, otherwise superb. Attractive bluish-black patina.

Ex. Private collection, aquired in 1976 from Axel Weber, Cologne, Germany.

A wonderful and very large late achaemenid / Greco-Persian bronze Patera, c. 4th century B.C.

At the rim a bead moulding, the end of the handle in form of an animal-head, possibly a wolf or dog, on the handle engraved decoration.

Size: Nearly 35 cm. long incl. the handle and and quite deep, measuring 8 cm. from the handle down and ca. 5,3 cm. to the rim of the bowl...

A large and superb early bronze bowl, Ancient Near East, Early Achaemenid / Greco-Persian, c. 7th.-5th. century BC.

The phiale designed in high relief as a sun or a flower with multible rays radiating from the central omphallos. Very flat design, typical for this type of phiale for making drink-offers.

Size: 19 cm. in diameter.

Condition: Extremely fine, exceptionally attractive Phiale with a green and olive patina.

Ex...

A larger and well-engraved Chalchedony stamp seal, Neo-babylonian period of Mesopotamia, 8th.-6th. century BC.

Trapezoid shape, decorated with a fine style image of Marduk, the main god of the early Neo-Babylonian Empire, standing in front of a complicated structure with podiums and towers, crescent above. Complete with suspension hole through the centre.

A beautiful seal with complete brownish calcified surfaces.

Size: ca. 28 mm. tall, 21 mm. wide.

Co...

A lovely set of cylinder and stamp seal, mounted as a gold / gilt pendant - ex Oberländer collection, Uruk-Jemdet Nasr, 4th.-3rd. millenium BC.

The set includes a high quality Mesopotamian Jemdet Nasr period (3300-2900 BC) brown stone cylinder seal. The seal is finely engraved the 'eye' or circle/rhomboid form - a characteristic and significant design for the Period. In the pendant is also a beautiful blackstone seal with delicate handle and engraved with an interesting Cruci-form,...

A lovely and unusually large scaraboid seal, Middle-Neo-Assyrian, c. 12th.-9th. century BC.

Winged Deity, probably Ashur tending the Tree of Life, all within an oval frame. Stylized scarab carved in an attractive greenish brown stone.

Size: 32 mm. long and 27 mm. wide! Really amazing.

Condition: Extremely fine and with a lovely patina!

Provenance: Gustav Oberländer (1926-2012), Oberländer aquired his massive and important collection between 1985 - 20...

A large and profusely engraved blackstone cylinder seal, Western Mesopotamia / Cappadocia, 2000-1600 BC.

Very interesting with a bird-headed deity seated in front of a fierce winged demon standing on the back of an animal; with multiple creatures, insect-like and other animals on the entire surface.

Size: 26 mm. tall and 17 mm. wide so an impressive seal in hand.

Condition: Extremely fine with some mild corrsoion in parts and fine patina with redish deposits. ...