Catalog: Antiques (285)

Roman fragment with a tabula ansata inscribed DOMIN[A] VICTOR[IA], an acclamation translatable as “Lady, victory (is yours)!”
The inscription is connected to Saint Thecla, whose upper arm and blurred hand appear below.
Saint Thecla was a companion of Saint Paul, and an important figure in the Christian imagery of Roman North Africa. She enjoyed great popularity during the Byzantine period.
Ceramic
Roman, North Africa, 350-430 AD
H. 7.1 cm (2.8 in)
W...

Burnished Yortan jug of globular body and narrow neck. The beaked spout is connected to the body with an arched handle.
Six raised knobs around the belly and one at the bottom to the handle.
Ceramic
Anatolian, Yortan Culture, 2700-2500 BC
H. 24 cm (9.4 in)
Spout and handle reattached, otherwise choice condition. Carefully polished surface...

Partly hammered and partly engraved bronze belt of elliptical form.
Richly decorated with nine central bosses surrounded by concentric circles. On the sides stylized waterfowls emerging from a herringbone design.
The sideward bosses with engraved with rays and circles look much like sun symbols.
Engraved fine-line waterfowls at each end of the belt...

Faience shabti inscribed with six lines of horizontal text starting just below the crossed arms.
The spell reads: ‘The Governor of Upper Egypt, Anhh-Hor, he speaks, oh, this shabti’ and is followed by version VII-A of the shabti spell.
The inscription shows an exceptional orthography and archaic vocabulary reminiscent of the renaissance of ancient Egyptian culture at the beginning of the 26th Dynasty.
Ankh-Hor was a high rank official under Psammetichus II and Apries and...

Daunian bag-shaped vessel enhanced with a carefully rendered female protome just below the straight rim. The head with large lentoid earrings (?) and a necklace: the hair painted blue, short strokes along the body.
A rounded strainer type spout at rear and a strap handle to the side.
Buff colored vessel with red-brown and dark blue bands, a band of diamonds around the belly.
For further bird-like female protomes cf. items no. 36, 39, 46 and 49 in: J. Chamay, Ch. Courtois...

Bronze helmet with a high domed crown and a median ridge that vanishes towards the occiput. The carination is raised to a tiny gable on the front face and shapes the anatomy of the occipital area of the head.
A bronze ring to fix a lining inside the helmet is attached with four rivets underneath the brim...

Nice black-figure lekythos with men, two of them seated on fold chairs (okladiai). The men show nicely rendered heavy heads. They wear cloaks, some with faded bordures or dots, two of them holding staffs (?)
Branches without leaves in the field. Two rows of radiating strokes on the shoulder.
Ceramic
Athens, 500-480 BC
12.4 cm (4.9 in)
Intact and in excellent condition...

Pa-Khaas’ father was Ankh-Hapi, the name of his mother was Hathor-em-akhet. The T-shaped inscription is reading: ‘The illuminated one, the Osiris, the ‘Overseer of the Royal Ships’, Pa-Khaas, born to Hathor-em-akhet, justified.’
The figure carries a pick with the left, the right with a hoe and a rope for a small basket suspended behind the left shoulder...

Rare Etruscan neck ring with outwards-turned tapering ends and a belonging fibula.
The grayish patina and the effloresced surface denote that the silver contains additions of other metals like lead and tin.
Neck rings were known from the Celts and also used during the Villanovan period.
Silver
Etruscan, ca. 6th-4th century BC
W. torque 13.8 cm (5.4 in)
L. fibula 9.8 cm (3.85 in)
Torque broken at the thickened lower end and reconstituted...

Flat-bottomed aryballos with two neatly incised male busts showing big eyes and pointed chins. The hair is tied in a tuft (krobylos) by a fillet and falls gently along the shoulder.
The busts alternate with geese. Rosettes in the field. Radiating strokes on shoulder and rim.
Best parallel for the style is Utrecht Univ. 60, Male sirens facing swan, in: D.A. Amyx, Corinthian Vase-Painting of the Archaic Period (1988), 180:B-7.
Reconstituted from fragments...

Black-figure lekythos decorated with two heraldic lions looking back over their shoulders. Rosette and dots in the field.
The vase belongs to the Dolphin Group, which is named after the leaping dolphins on the shoulder. Our piece shows the later decoration of large inverted lotus wreaths.
For a related example cf. vase no...

Large ornate vessel with wide funnel-shaped mouth and vertical handles alternating with raised left hands. The hands enhanced with stripes. Dots on the back of the hand, the forefinger and the little finger.
On the shoulder metopes with painted panels and dotted spaces over ivy garlands. For a closely related vase cf. no. 211 in: Electa Napoli. L’art des peoples italiques. Geneva 1993.
Ceramic
Daunian, Subgeometric II B, 475-425 BC
H. 28 cm (11 in)
D. 28 cm ...

Oversize axe of rhomboid shape with a short vertical and a broader horizontal blade. Roughened surface and a central perforation to insert a pole. The use of the item is unclear, also in view of the considerable weight of four kilogram. The type is described in the literature as axe hammer and also as double axe. For an almost identical example cf. item no. 144, in: Christian Zervos. La civilisaton de la Sardaigne du début de l’eneolithique à la fin de la période nouragique. Paris 1954. ...

Youthful head of a Bodhissatva with superbly modeled asymmetries. The protruding left side of the face together with the falling line of the eyes and of the mouth make the head appear bent to the right. The yellow-ochre face shows black eyebrows and faint red pigment on the swollen eyelids which close the eyes to slits. Traces of red also appear on the sensitively modeled fleshy mouth. A red dot on the forehead, the so-called urna, symbolizes enlightenment and wisdom. The oval face is framed b...

Head of the Buddha shown with solemn expression. The refined facial features with arched eyebrows over heavy lidded eyes and a sensitively modeled mouth with purse lips. The half open eyes with their barely indicated irises confer the head a meditative gaze. The hair is delicately textured with a central bun (usnisha) on top. The idealized style is reminiscent of Greek Hellenistic sculpture which lived on among Gandharan artists. Stucco. Gandhara, 3rd/4th century AD. H. 7.7 cm (3 in), H. w...