Several items from this exeptional early collection.
A
wonderful silver torc from Bulgaria by the Dardanian Celts who settled on the
lower Danube. This area, called Moesia by the Romans, adjoined the Thracians
who were also fine metal workers from ancient times. There is a degree of borrowing
and fusion in this region where civilization meets the steppes and trade flows
from all directions. Unfortunately war and invasion also swept this region repeatedly.
The Celts were divided into the Eastern and Western Celts, the Western in the British Isles, France, Spain and Italy. They mixed more with the Greeks and Romans and developed the later La Tene culture. The Eastern Celts of Germany, Hungary, the Balkans and Asia Minor remained closer to the original Halstatt culture and were either more aggressive or under greater pressure to migrate. The Dardanians were one of the Eastern Celt tribes which took part in Brennius’ 3rd century B.C. invasion of Greece, the sack of Delphi and the invasion of Asia Minor. The Dardanians quit the invasion before reaching Greece and settled at the mouth of the Danube where they remained for many centuries. Their coinage is also a distinctive Celtic-Greek blend.
This
torc is made from two bars of silver twisted together in the traditional Celtic
manner, and then hammer-welded together and shaped at the ends. The ends are
stylized snake heads. There is a series of holes where either stones or enamel
were placed or rivets had been located.
Overall
the piece is clean and in very fine condition with a dull gray patina of age.
It is 5.5 x 4.75 inches across and weighs 2 ozs. It still can be worn as jewelry.
VF with a rich silver-gray patina
$450.00
From
the Earliest Persian setlements in Bactria and Sogdiana, in the Northeast of
Afghanistan. In the constant movement of peoples out of the great Eurasian Steppes,
the Bactrian and Sogdianian tribes of the Persian peoples moved in c. 1500 B.C.
to replace the Indo-Aryans who had just migrated to India, filling the void
created by the collapse of the Indus civilization. The Medes and Persians were
just entering Northwest Persia at this date, although they are not noticed in
the records until some 500 years later. Bactrian and Sogdianian were a distinct
sub-family of Medio-Persian, showing some centuries of separation during their
migration down the east side of the deserts to the valleys of the Hindu Kush.
The Persians were skilled metal workers, as were most of the Indo-European
peoples. In seemingly primitive conditions, and without cities and a developed
economic system, they made all manner of fine and useful objects. The same holds
true today. In this distant region of the world metal was scarce and so tools
were only made as large as needed. This ax is some 3.5" long, but still
is an effective weapon when on a sturdy shaft. It is soft enough that it might
be arsenical copper bronze instead of tin bronze, although some tin was mined
in the Hindu Kush. It was found at a site in Badakshan, near the ancient city
of Balkh on the caravan route to the lapis lazuli mines and China. On such trade
routes we would expect a richer material culture, including artifacts such as
this ax. Then, as ever, trade generated wealth.
A very old
and rare piece with a fine patina. It was acquired from a Turkoman antique dealer
in Los Angeles who obtained it from "contacts" inside Afghanistan. As many fakes
are now coming from Afghanistan and Pakistan the dealer had it examined by Abdul
Wais, the retired director of the Kabul Museum (now living in Germany). This
piece and two other axes were found to be genuine, but several other pieces
were detected as modern forgeries. (Email documentation supplied.)
Overall very fine with a rich, green patina.
$450.00
The
seal of a late-Medieval/early Renaissance bishop from Suffolk, a rich English
area in southern East Anglia near London. It dates from the reigns of Henry
the 7th or early Henry the 8th (while he was still Catholic, before he started
the Church of England, took so many wives and cut off their heads). It shows
a very deeply engraved German-style Eagle and the Lombardic script inscription
ESV * DNI (= “Episcopus * Domini”, or Bishop of the Lord). The Germanic
style eagle may accurately reflect the International nature of the Catholic
Church then, where Italian bishops were found everywhere, and bishops of all
nationalities were found in most countries. That all changed with the Protestant
Reformation which was nationalist as much as religious. A metal detector find.
Would make an attractive watch fob or necklace.
Very Good condition.
$395.00
A
nice and scarce ivory cylinder seal with a "net" pattern, triangular,
zig-zag borders and single line edges dating from the early Sumerian Jemdat
Nasr period, c. 3100-2900 B.C.E. The net pattern is intended to portray a hunting
net, and on some seals we actually see animals captured in it. The early Sumerians,
and indeed most early peoples, were descended from hunter-farmers, and hunting
was both important and had high social status. The Roman animal fight games,
which were much more common than gladitorial fights, are a later example of
this, and it is still seen in such rituals as the English fox hunt. The triangular
cut ends portray the appearance of the gold mountings that these seals had.
Ivory was a scarce and sought after material in those times and this was a seal
of someone special. Ivory is a fragile and easily destroyed material that both
rots and burns, and few ivory artifacts survive today. 18 mm tall by 9 mm diameter.
Good condition with some chipping to the ends.
$250.00
Also see the fine prints of Egyptian Antiquities from Napoleon’s 1799 Expedition that discovered the Rosetta Stone and began Egyptology.
For orders, questions or suggestions please contact Stephen Herold.