Skip to main content
Bonhams
Search

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

An Anatolian marble idol
A Mesopotamian clay cuneiform foundation cone with dedication inscription of King Lipit-Ishtar of Isin

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

A small Mesopotamian clay cuneiform foundation cone inscribed for King Sin-Kashid of Uruk
A Neo-Assyrian or Neo-Hittite bronze helmet with pelta-shaped cheek-pieces
A Babylonian agate "eye-stone" bead, inscribed for Nebuchadnezzar II
A large Etruscan Impasto Ware pottery olla
A Roman marble torso of a youth wearing a tunic
A Roman marble head of a satyr
An Attic pottery tankard with geometric decoration
A Greek bronze horse
A Greek pottery alabastron in the form of a greaved leg
A Greek green glazed faience hedgehog aryballos
A Greek bronze hydria with siren handle-plate
A Greek terracotta figure of a woman
A Greek terracotta female figure with a bird perched on her shoulder
An Etruscan terracotta antefix of a satyr
An Etruscan bronze woman possibly dancing
An Etruscan bronze candelabrum
An Etruscan terracotta votive life-size left leg
An Attic black-figure Little Master band-cup with grazing deer and panther
An Attic black-figure eye-cup with gorgoneion tondo
An Attic red-figure trefoil lipped oinochoe
An Attic black-figure lekythos
A European bronze dirk blade
Previous Lot
Next Lot
An Egyptian mosaic glass griffin inlay image 1
An Egyptian mosaic glass griffin inlay image 2
An Egyptian mosaic glass griffin inlay image 3
An Egyptian mosaic glass griffin inlay image 4
Lot 35*

An Egyptian mosaic glass griffin inlay

Antiquities
7 December 2021, 12:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £12,750 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Antiquities specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

Ask about this lot

An Egyptian mosaic glass griffin inlay
Ptolemaic Period, circa 332-30 B.C.
The beast depicted with right forepaw raised, tongue extended, with elaborate feathered wings, wearing a thick collar, details in opaque yellow, red, turquoise, dark blue and white in a translucent cobalt blue matrix, 1.6cm high, 1.9cm long

Footnotes

Provenance:
The Groppi Collection, Switzerland; acquired in the 1920s-1940s.
The Groppi Collection; Christie's, London, 26 April 2012, lot 105.

Exhibited:
Köstlichkeiten aus Kairo!, Antikensmuseum Basel und Sammlung Ludwig und Museum August Kestner Hannover, 2008-9 (cat. p. 73, no. 22).

Published:
Treasures from the Al Thani Collection, Beijing, 2018, vol. II, no. 19, p. 72-3.

Griffins are mythical creatures that typically combine the head and wings of an eagle with the body of a lion; this example, however, combines the forepart of a lion with the wings and tail of an eagle. Thought to have originated in the Near East and Egypt simultaneously around the 4th Century B.C., images of the griffin spread across the Mediterranean and into Western Asia, and conveyed ideas of power and divine majesty.

For other examples see the Corning Museum, Corning, New York, acc. no. 59.1.99 (formerly in the Ray Winfield Smith collection), and E. M. Stern and B. Schlick-Nolte, Early Glass of the Ancient World, 1600 B.C.-A.D. 50, Ernesto Wolf Collection, Ostfildern, 1994, no. 137. The Wolf example is symmetrical with another identical plaque facing it, suggesting that the above lot likely also originally formed part of a pair.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

An Anatolian marble idol
A Mesopotamian clay cuneiform foundation cone with dedication inscription of King Lipit-Ishtar of Isin
A small Mesopotamian clay cuneiform foundation cone inscribed for King Sin-Kashid of Uruk
A Neo-Assyrian or Neo-Hittite bronze helmet with pelta-shaped cheek-pieces
A Babylonian agate "eye-stone" bead, inscribed for Nebuchadnezzar II
A large Etruscan Impasto Ware pottery olla
A Roman marble torso of a youth wearing a tunic
A Roman marble head of a satyr
An Attic pottery tankard with geometric decoration
A Greek bronze horse
A Greek pottery alabastron in the form of a greaved leg
A Greek green glazed faience hedgehog aryballos
A Greek bronze hydria with siren handle-plate
A Greek terracotta figure of a woman
A Greek terracotta female figure with a bird perched on her shoulder
An Etruscan terracotta antefix of a satyr
An Etruscan bronze woman possibly dancing
An Etruscan bronze candelabrum
An Etruscan terracotta votive life-size left leg
An Attic black-figure Little Master band-cup with grazing deer and panther
An Attic black-figure eye-cup with gorgoneion tondo
An Attic red-figure trefoil lipped oinochoe
An Attic black-figure lekythos
A European bronze dirk blade