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Property from a Princely Collection (Lots 1-74)
Lot 31

A large Mesopotamian lapis lazuli, limestone and black stone eye inlay

Antiquities
4 July 2024, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

£6,000 - £8,000

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A large Mesopotamian lapis lazuli, limestone and black stone eye inlay
Early Dynastic, circa 2600-2250 B.C.
7cm long

Footnotes

Provenance:
Private collection, Europe, 1975.
Swiss art market.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 4 June 2008, lot 78.
Property from a Princely Collection, acquired from the above.

An eye such as the example above may have come from a large statue of a worshipper. Wide eyes were intended to convey prayerful awe. There is a Sumerian alabaster statue of a worshipper with wide-eyed inlays in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, acc. no. 40.156, dated circa 2900–2600 B.C.

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Bid now on these items

An Anatolian marble idol
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