A fine bronze standard finial of the "Master of Animals" type, worked on both sides identically. A tube in anthropomorphic form showing a human with a long nose and jutting ears, grasping the necks of two animals. The center of the figure with a human mask and two protruding cock's heads. Western Iran, Luristan culture, c. 9th-7th century B.C. Provenance: Private Collection, Switzerland. Condition: fine, only slightly bent. With nice patina. Dimension: height: 18.2 cm.

An attractive Uruk Zoomorphic stamp seal pendant, c. late 4th.-early 3rd. millenium BC.

The seal carved in a wonderful transperant stone and depicts an animal rearing it's head. The base carved with a Grit pattern and central piercing.

Size: 20 mm. tall and 19 mm. wide...

Interesting large round seal with a finely made engraving in the base, East-Anatolian, 3rd.-2nd. mill. BC.

Highly interesting engraving!

Size: 30 mm. in diameter and 13 mm...

A lovely sharp cylinder seal in a rare material of quartz for this period, Uruk-Jemdet Nasr, c. 3300-3000 BC.

Sharp impression and attractive.

Size: 14 mm. tall and 11 mm. wide.

Condition: Extremely fine for the type, with minor calcification at one side.

Added to the Oberländer collection in 2007...

A very attractive seal carved in fine shell (see the endings), Mesopotamia, late 3rd. millenium BC.

Interesting depiction of 4 different deities standing.

Size: 26 mm. tall and 14 mm. thick.

Condition: Nice Very fine and basically intact, the seal is nice, the imprint not so much.

Added to the Oberländer collection in 2005...

A superb cylinder seal in a rare material of Red Jasper for this period, Uruk-Jemdet Nasr, c. 3300-3000 BC.

Sharp impression and attractive with both fishes and the 'eye'-symbol, which is typical of Jemdet Nasr.

The Jemdet Nassr Period in seal manifacturing,3300-2900 BC, were spreading from Southern Mesopotamia, where a great number of administrative cuneiform tablets and seals came from. Such seals was used to impress pictures or descriptions into soft, prepared clay...

Interesting and rare massive cylinder seal and stamp in one, Eastern Anatolia / West-mesopotmian pre-dynastic, c. 4th. mill. BC.

The seal finely engraved with a bulls-eye pattern and a deep relief star in the base. Topdrilled with loss to the small loop.

Size: 22 mm. thick and 30 mm. tall...

One of the largest tablet or brick seals, we've ever offered. Bifacial tablet seals can normally be dated to around the 3rd. millenium BC. This is so delicately carved that it could be made somewhat later in the 2nd. mill. BC.

The black serpentine seal depicts a large Bee, filling the whole of the seal, and on the other side a Scorpion. Particularly, the Bee is masterfully engraved, so that even tiny details and textures of the bee can be seen...

Kohl bottle of flat shape with a long neck and flat rim, resting on four legs. Bronze, with fine dark green patina. 19th century. Height: 8.5 cm. Very good condition. A rare piece.

A choice Islamic Sgraffito pottery dish, Bamiyan, c. 12th cent AD.

Nice earthenware dish with incised, floral decorations in the interior. Beige/white underglaze with green and brown decorative colors.

Size: 15,5 x 4 cm.

Condition: Choice & intact. Fine condition for the type with original glaze. A few chips in the interior and on the rim.

Provenance: Prominent Danish-French Private Estate collection, (aquired 1970- c. 2007) of Islamic pottery ware fr...

A fine quality stamp seal with carved handle and a square seal base, probalbly no earlier than 2nd. mill. BC.

The image of a demon walking is a depiction that is known in Anatolia from the late Uruk period in the late 4th. mill. and especially during the 3rd. mill. BC. We've handled a small handful of such seals over the years.

This seal is particular interesting, since it's really well carved completely symethric and with a lovely little round handle, engraved with a rel...

An intact and attractive pottery bowl,9th.-10th. century AD.

The bowl decorated with in black pseudo-caligraphy in crossform on a beige ground.

Size: 21,5 cm. wide and 6,5 cm. tall.

Condition: Choice, with much original glaze, lightly restored, but difficult to spot.

Provenance: Important Danish-French Private collection, (aquired 1970- c. 2007) of Islamic pottery ware from the 9th.-12th. century. Comes with COA.

A nice larger hemispheric stamp seal engraved in the base with a Cruciform design and pierced through, Mesopotamian, Ubad, c. 5th. millenium BC.

Size: c. 23 mm. and 12 mm tall.

Condition: Good Very fine.

This seal comes with hard impression and original ID-card from below collection, see pictures.

Provenance: Gustav Oberländer (1926-2012), Oberländer aquired his massive and important collection between 1985 - 2000s, bought at reputable dealers and fr...

A superb bronze battle adze-axe, South Caspian Sea type (Eastern region), early 2nd. millenium BC.

An elaborate type with a very sharp depiction of a Human Eye on each side of the rilled socket. Long slender adze and axe blades with wider edges. Rare and exceptional so nice!

Size: c. 14 cm. long.

Condition: Extremely fine, a gem of an axe with lovely red and green patina.

Ex. Private Collection in Denmark, aquired in the 1990s.

A fine set of three bronze and copper daggers, East Caspian Sea area, 3rd.-2nd. mill. BC.

The set includes one extremely fine dagger of later fabric, probably 1200-800 BC with a long bend tang.

Size: 177 mm., 173 mm., and 147 mm.

Condition: Choice VF to Extremely fine, uncleaned with sandy deposits.

Ex. Danish private Collection, aquired at the Copenhagen antiques market in the 1990s.

Hand modeled biconical vase with cream ground and red to dark brown decoration.
The body with groups of chevrons starting from a star-shaped pattern on the bottom. The narrow neck with a band of converging zig-zag patterns.
The globular body elongates laterally into pointed knob handles. Standing on a gently rounded base, vase slightly askew in appearance.
Shape and decoration are consistent with painted Hacilar I pottery ware.
For the shape, cf. fig. 140,7, pp. 412-...

Interesting lot of three amulets, two in stone and one in bronze dating from ca. 2000 BC-1000 AD.

The lot consists of a larger Islamic bronze pendant or amulet, 55 mm. long and another serpentine stone amulet with engraved decoration or writing (Hittite?), ca. 1st. millenium BC and a third amulet in stone, grooved and likely a fertility amulet Anatolia or Mesopotamia, 2nd.-1st. mill BC.

Nice lot that calls for more research!

Ex. German Private Collection

Attractive seal, carved in green-black stone with a knob handle, Western Asia, Neo-Hittite states, c. 1200-800 BC

Triangular seal plate, engraved with a 4-legged animal, struck by an arrow. The knob handle engraved wioth grit-pattern.

Diameter: 19 mm. Height: 16 mm.

Condition: Good Very fine, intact with fine dessert patina.

Reff. See Ashmolean collection AN1914.53 for a similar style seal, attributed to Syria.

Hogarth, D.G., Hittite seals -...

CLAY FIGURE OF A STANDING ASTARTE “FERTILITY GODDESS”
MESOPOTAMIA, OLD BABYLONIAN, 1800 B.C.

Dimensions:
Height: 12.5 cm
Width: 3.5 cm
Height on stand: 14.5 cm

Ishtar (Akkadian), Astarte (Phoenician), or Inanna (Sumerian) was the most important female deity in Mesopotamia through the second millennium BC. She was identified with the planet Venus, and the sunrise. She was the goddess of both sexual love and warfare. The Greeks identified her with Aphrod...

Very attractive thick early geomethric style cylinder seal, carved in marble or another calsite stone, Mesopotamia, Jemdet Nasr period, c. 3300-2900 BC.

Nice substantial piece!

Size: 21 mm tall and 15 mm. thick!

Condition: Nice very fine, intact with minor wear.

This seal comes with hard impression and original ID-card from below collection, see pictures.

Provenance: Gustav Oberländer (1926-2012), Oberländer aquired his massive and import...

A finely carved late- to Neo-Assyrian black stone cylinder seal, depicting running animal in a fine style and very high relief, above is star and crescent, mid-to late Assyrian.

Size: 27-28 mm. tall and 10 mm. wide.

Condition: Good Very fine and glossy, better than imprint indicates.

Provenance: The Karl Müller collection, Germany 1950-1977. Comes with COA and his hard imprint.

A nice scaraboid stone seal carved in serpentine, Western Mesopotamia, c. early-mid 2nd. mill. BC.

The scaraboid is engraved with a high relief carving of a man standing with outstretched arms and a tree in each hand. Quite unusual.

Size: 20 mm. by 16 mm. and 8 mm. tall.

Condition: Good very fine.

This seal comes with hard impression and original ID-card from below collection, see pictures.

Provenance: Gustav Oberländer (1926-2012), Oberlä...

An high quality thick / massive cylinder seal in fine white marple, carved with the 'eye' or circle/rhomboid pattern - a characteristic and significant design for the Period. The seal is slightly conical as tipical for the latest seals of Jemdet Nasr.

The Jemdet Nassr Period in seal manifacturing,3300-2900 BC, were spreading from Southern Mesopotamia, where a great number of administrative cuneiform tablets and seals came from. Such seals was used to impress pictures or descriptions i...

Fine round stone stamp seal with a symethric carving in the base of Bulls eye pattern, Eastern Anatolia / Western Mesopotamia, early 4th. mill. BC

The seal was aquired by the collector in 1995.

Size: 23 mm. wide and 14 mm. tall.

Condition: Nice Very fine, some even wear but intact.

Comes with hard impression and original ID-card from the collection.

Provenance: Gustav Oberländer (1926-2012), Oberländer aquired his massive and important c...

A fine and large bronze seal with a loop on the back and a beautiful elaborate cross design, Bactria, c. mid 3rd. millenium BC.

The seal belongs to one of the varied mostly circular metal “stamp seals” relief cast in bronze or copper alloy, but more rarely in silver or gold, which is classified as so-called “compartmented seal” (a term first used in 1943 by the British archaeologist Stuart Pigott – 1943. P. 179–180, fig. 4) fabricated in openwork and with closely related cha...

This exquisite ancient artifact is a bronze sword from the North-Western Asiatic "Amlash" region, which dates back to the 10th-8th century B.C. The sword was discovered in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea area and is a rare find. The intricate design of the hilt is formed of two segments, with the grip featuring a square section. The disk pommel is extended to a conical molding, making it visually striking. The penannular guard is elliptical in shape and holds a double-edged tapering blade with a...

A tanged 'Luristan' bronze dagger or short sword from Ancient Near East, Caspian Sea Area, Bronze age, dating to mid 2nd mill BC.

The sword with high, rounded shoulders and slight central midrib.

Length: c. 33,5 cm.

Condition: Fine green patina. Some roughness to the edges.

Ex. Private Collection in Denmark, formed in the 1990's.

A fine style cylinder seal carved in an attractive beige-yellowish stone, probably jasper, Mesopotamia under the Achaemenid Empire, c. 7th.-5th. century BC.

Sharp low relief depiction of the Great King wrestling with winged lions with bearded human heads!

Size: c. 26 mm. tall.

Ex. Danish Private Collection, this seal aquired in the early 1990s.

With spherical body on short foot, the tubular neck with traces of engravings, the handle with beading and pomegranate thumb-rest, minor dents, hairline crack and a couple of small holes to body, but intact, overall patination to surface.

A substantial and interesting type of early Islamic vessel.

Height: 27,3 cm.

Ex. Reff. See Christies's auction ''Arts of the Islamic World & India including Fine Rugs and Carpets'', 27 October 2021 / lot 9 for a similar vesse...

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.

A wonderful large stamp seal with stag and perhaps a young stag below, Anatolia, c. 4th.-3rd. millenium BC.

A thick seal deeply engraved with a vivid motif in a serpentine stone.

Size: c. 34-35 mm. long.

Condition: Choice VF, some overall wear but completely intact.

Comes with the original ID card!

Provenance: Gustav Oberländer (1926-2012), Oberländer aquired his massive and important collection between 1985 - 2000s, bought at reputable dea...

Interesting late neolithic - early bronzeage stamp seal in attractive dark green stone, finely engraved, East Anatolia/West Mesopotamia, c. 3rd. millenium bC.

The seal finely made with a handle and sort of 'Hat-shaped' like these pre-Hittite seals often are. The engraving shows a pair of horned animals with very long curved horns and with the small triangular spearpoint-forms in the fields, typical for Anatolian seals.

Size: 24 mm. in diameter.

Condition: Good ...

This exceptional artifact is a one-piece dagger blade made of bronze, originating from the North-Western part of Asia during the Ancient Bronze Age, which existed from 1500 to 1200 B.C. The blade is a masterpiece of craftsmanship, displaying a tapering double-edged structure with a pronounced central rib. The rib, which runs down the center of the blade, would have added strength to the weapon. The blade also has a short tang, which is a protruding part of the blade that would have been used to ...

Attractive and impressive large stamp seal, engraved with an intriquing geomethric design, Anatolia or Mesopotamian, c. 4th.-3rd. millenium BC.

Interesting design of the seal, floral or perhaps female fertility forms, deeply engraved in the black serpentine stone. Looks a bit like some of the designs during Jemdet Nasr, which could date this seal to around 3300-2900 BC

Size: c. 30 x 27 mm.

Condition: Choice VF, light wear to the edge but basically intact and attr...

A massive black stone stamp seal with high relief, Ancient Near East, Mesopotamia, Uruk period, 4th. millenium BC.

High relief carving of stylized animal and other symbols.

Size: 31 mm. in diameter and 17 mm. tall, so a high domed seal, really large in hand.

Condition: Near Extremely fine, uncleaned deposits, very attractive.

This seal was aquired 1990 and comes with hard impression and original ID-card from below collection.

Provenance: Gus...

A very large and scarce round gable stamp seal in black serpentine stone, Anatolia, c. 4th. millenium BC.

The fine seal with central drilling and carved with an animal on the base.

Size: 35 mm. in diameter.

Condition: Nice VF, some wear, especially to the drilled hole from ancient use.

This seal comes with the original ID-card from below collection.

Provenance: Gustav Oberländer (1926-2012), Oberländer aquired his massive and important col...