A Sasanian Silver-gilt Bowl, circa 6th/7th Century A.D.

Estimate

50,000 - 80,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

A Sasanian Silver-gilt Bowl
Length 10 1/8 in. 25.8 cm.; weight 16oz. 504g.

of oval form with high foot, the exterior decorated in shallow relief and chased with two vines emerging from the long ends of the foot, their scrolling branches forming a continuous frieze of eight circular medallions containing birds, canines, and hares, some nibbling on the fruit of the vine, several nests or baskets containing pairs of birds at the forks of the branches, two lines of Middle Persian inscription punched underneath the foot.

Provenance

J.J. Klejman, New York, circa 1965

Literature

Sasanian Silver. Late Antique and Early Medieval Arts of Luxury from Iran, catalogue of the exhibition at The University of Michigan Museum of Art, August-September 1967, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1967, no. 52, illus.
Prudence O. Harper, "Boat-shaped Vessels of the Sasanian Period," Iranica Antiqua, vol. 23, 1988, p. 335, note 10

Catalogue Note

For related decoration on a Sasanian oval bowl cf. Les Perses sassanides, no. 40 (MMA Bulletin, Spring, 1984, fig.11); also see no. 42, a lobed bowl with related decoration and a very similar foot with inscription below.