A mortar with a rare elephant motifs - image-1
A mortar with a rare elephant motifs - image-2
A mortar with a rare elephant motifs - image-3
A mortar with a rare elephant motifs - image-4
A mortar with a rare elephant motifs - image-1A mortar with a rare elephant motifs - image-2A mortar with a rare elephant motifs - image-3A mortar with a rare elephant motifs - image-4

Lot 521 Dα

A mortar with a rare elephant motifs

Auction 1152 - overview Cologne
29.05.2020, 11:00 - Highly Important Mortars from the Schwarzach Collection II
Estimate: 2.000 € - 3.000 €
Result: 4.500 € (incl. premium)
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A mortar with a rare elephant motifs

Chased cast bronze, presumably with sintered remnants of red pigment. Of cylindrical form with flaring upper and lower rims. The central moulded rib engraved with a cord motif, below this a decorative frieze with hunting animals, including a feline, beneath a band of alternating circle and leaf motifs, some of the circles with depictions of elephants. Three further elephant motifs in circular surrounds along the upper rim interspersed with calligraphic inscriptions. Green corrosion, minor defects, chisel marks to the base caused during excavation. H 14, D 20.8 cm. Weight c. 6.3 kg.
Khorasan, 12th century.

Provenance

Archaeological find, Herat, North Western Afghanistan.

Literature

For the animal motifs, compare the mortar in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Nasli M. Heeramaneck Collection, gift of Joan Palevsky (M.73.5.264a-b) in cat.: The Great Age of the Seljuqs. In Court and Cosmos. New York 2016. No. 97, p. 170 f, illus. 170.