IRAN, HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND CENTURY B.C.

Name: A PARTHIAN SILVER-GILT PHALERA WITH A MEDUSA HEAD
Brand: IRAN, HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND CENTURY B.C.
Price: 4200.00 GBP
Availability: SoldOut

Price Realised GBP 5,292

Estimate

GBP 5,000 - GBP 7,000

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A PARTHIAN SILVER-GILT PHALERA WITH A MEDUSA HEAD

IRAN, HELLENISTIC PERIOD, CIRCA 2ND CENTURY B.C.

Price Realised GBP 5,292

6¹¹⁄₁₆ in. (17 cm.) diam.

Private Collection, UK; acquired 1970s.
Antiquities, Christie's, London, 25 April 2007, lot 236.
Antiquities, Christie's, London, 13 October 2008, lot 37.

M. Burns, "Graeco-Italic Militaria," in M. Merrony, ed., Mougins Museum of Classical Art, Mougins, 2011, p. 234, fig. 139.
C. Dauphin, Animals in the Ancient World: The Levett Bestiary, Mougins, 2014, p. 95.
C. Dauphin, Les Animaux dans le Monde Antique: Le Bestiaire Levett, Mougins, 2016, p. 73, fig. 79.
M. Livingston and M. Cole, "Finding Pydna," Ancient Warfare, June-July 2020, p. 47.

Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins, 2011-2023 (Inv. no. MMoCA30).

US clients wishing to buy this lot, and any persons wishing to import it into the USA, should contact Christie’s prior to placing a bid. Due to current Iranian sanctions, transactions involving certain Iranian-origin property may require authorization from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to be shipped to the USA. Christie’s has an OFAC General License that enables these imports, subject to certain conditions and disclosures to OFAC. Please contact Christie’s for further information.

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Lot Essay

The phalera, or horse-trapping, is decorated with a central gilt relief head of a Gorgoneion turned slightly to the right. There are small wings on either side of her head with snakes above and two snakes knotted under her chin. The phalera would have likely been worn with a pair, on each shoulder of the animal, by threading them through the attachment loops on the reverse, which also keep the six conical bosses on the front in place. For a discussion on phalerae in the Hellenized East, cf. M. Pfrommer, Metalwork from the Hellenized East, J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1993, pp. 5-13 and pp. 155-164. The reverse has a punched inscription along the outer edge, ...MN ZWZN 100 / "...[made] from 100 drachms."